Integrity--The Tripod

Integrity is critical for leaders and Warren Bennis has an interesting twist to this concept.  He tells us to view integrity of leaders as composed of three elements: 

• ambition (desire to achieve something),
• competence (expertise and mastery of skills), and
• moral compass (virtues that are part of the larger human community and the ability to differentiate between good and evil). 

Bennis says to think of ambition, competence, and your moral compass as three legs of a tripod that have to be kept in balance.  Too much of any one of the three elements tends to negatively influence integrity. The key is to know when things are out of balance. Since we are not perfect, we can make needed corrections to keep things in balance.