Holding High the Bar of Integrity

Sometimes I struggle with that fine line between holding high the bar of integrity and either being rigid or selling out. It happens with Hayleigh when we make an agreement. I do my part of the agreement, then she wants to slide out of her part of the agreement. Do I cave in? Or do I demand she keep her word? I keep working for that middle ground, keeping my word, working with her to keep her word.  It takes longer, but I think of it as an investment in her future, and as an investment in The Future. It's certainly easier on me to let her slide – and sometimes I do. She's 4. And I want to model integrity for her (as well as for myself).

It has also happened in business. There was a company that asked me to do an "experiential 'thing' about self esteem." I said I would love to do that. We started talking and made an agreement. The next day they called and said that they had taken the plan up-line, and now they wanted me to do 'that thing' during the lunch hour. Very calmly, I told them I couldn't deliver what they wanted while people were chewing food. Delivering what they said they wanted would take 4 hours. It sounded like what they really wanted was an entertainer over lunch. That wasn't me. The next day, they called and said they had re-worked the schedule, and I had my 4 hours.

 Holding that bar was easy. I knew what I could deliver, what I wanted to deliver, and what I wasn't willing to do. Other times, it's not so easy. Like today. We (William Holt and I – TriVergent International) have an opportunity to make an impact in an international holding company. Do we go along with what they think they need (which is often not the case), or do we hold out for an assessment? The assessment could ultimately save them a lot of time and money. If we hold out for the assessment, we have a high probability of losing the opportunity to make an impact here. If we go along with what they think they need, we could at least get our foot in the door in order to make the impact we want to make. Or would we be turning ourselves into whores? Where is the bar here? From my current point of view (always subject to correction with further data), there is no right answer. So much depends on intuition. And, are they people with whom we Want to work? Are they just throwing money at a problem? Or are they really interested in evolving their work environment?

Either way, I can count on it being yet another learning experience. More to come.