Integrity: The Real Currency of Business

Let's consider the following scenario:

You are an analyst in the sports sector. Your value is to make deductions from which you advise clients on outcomes they can invest in and be sure of making profits.

You have charged in advance of releasing your deductions. Clients have paid you off, trusting that you've got their best interests at heart, your deductions are accurate and they are safe to invest.

Having paid you off and gotten the deductions, clients go ahead and invest. But! Your deductions end up being inaccurate and clients lose their investments. How do you respond with integrity?

In this instance, the right thing to do is quite clear. Thats not always true though. Regardless of if you run a business or work for someone else, you'll often encounter situations where its difficult, even scary to act with integrity.

In this article, we’ll examine the meaning of integrity and more importantly, why its imperative you act with integrity in your business dealings.

The Oxford Advanced English Dictionary defines integrity as "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles"

These moral principles are subjective and differ from person to person. Acting with integrity in business therefore means understanding what your business values are, informing your partners, clients and customers of these values and then to being true to those values regardless of the situation at hand.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the greatest salesman who ever lived is a man named Joe Girard. In his career as a salesman, he sold something like 13,000 cars, and broke national sales records for 12 years in a row.

Joe Girard tells us about the Rule of 52 which says:- "The average number of people at a wedding or a funeral is around 52. The average person knows around 52 people on a reasonably close, first-name basis"

This means that every person with whom you do business with or without integrity has reasonable, direct access to approximately 52 people to tell about their experience with you. And this doesn't take social media into consideration. With posts easily going viral these days, the details of an encounter with a single person can easily be broadcast to thousands worldwide.

The point here is that you should never, ever view a business encounter with one person as an encounter with just one person. It’s an "encounter" in a way, to between 32 and 52 (or more!) other people.

When you consider the ramifications of that statement, you'd see why its hugely important to always do business with integrity. In a way, its the currency, the blood upon which your business depends.

But why exactly is doing business with integrity so vital? Here are 5 solid reasons:-

1 Credibility: In business and life generally, reputation is everything. Clients need to trust that your service is excellent. Investors and business partners need to trust that you'd put their monies to good use and deliver as promised. With everyone you come across with in a business context, trust is crucial.

If you act with integrity, people will trust you, and word will spread faster than any marketing or advertising you could do. Conversely, a lack of integrity will smear your reputation, make future dealings difficult or even impossible and rob you of referrals.

2 Quality: Acting with integrity often entails providing a quality product, service or experience for the customer. As an analyst, I regularly put my integrity on the line when advising clients. It is my experience that when clients get me associated with high quality deductions at all times, they naturally tend to compensate me bigger and more often. Not to mention the referrals they send my way!

3 Long-Term Outlook: Like I shared, analysts who didn't act with integrity when dealing with clients in my field soon went out of business. They traded long term success and repeat business for short term wins and paid dearly for it.

Whatever business you’re in, you’re often presented with the chance to make a quick buck at the expense of others or achieve temporary gains by behaving dishonestly. Acting with integrity may be inconvenient at the moment but it usually pays off in droves down the road.

Business success ultimately comes from a long-term approach to things and those who achieve this success are those who understand that integrity is vital if they are to navigate this duration.

4 Better Focus: Deceiving and cheating clients, partners or customers takes up far more energy and resources than most people understand. You’re forever on your toes. Time, effort and resources that should be spent on advancing the business is rather wasted keeping track of which lie you’ve told and how to keep it all consistent, and how to create even more lies to cover up the previous lies and so on.

Acting with integrity frees you of these and instead lets you focus on what really matters - improving your product/service, satisfying clients, partners and customers even as you get rightly compensated for doing so.

5 Stronger Sales, Repeat and Referral Business: This is a direct result of a reputation for acting with integrity. In this day and age of internet fraud among others, these considerations are important for many clients, partners and  customers. People only want to do business with individuals or companies who are reputed to be responsible. What's more, when they've done business with these individuals/companies, they encourage others to do so as well.

Marketing and advertising are good. In fact, these are the core functions of a business owner. However embedding integrity into your business culture is also as important. Do that, and you'll effortlessly attract new customers who will in turn spread the word to like-minded people.

Integrity is the real currency of business. Embrace it in practice and watch your endeavours soar to unbelievable heights.