Facing Your Integrity Gap

How you live and lead matters, whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a manager at Trader Joe’s, the youth pastor at a local church, or the pope himself! An integrity gap is the distance between the values we preach (what we say about ourselves and want others to believe about us) and the values we actually live out (in front of people or when no one sees). When leaders of all types live and lead with integrity, everyone in their wake benefits; when an integrity gap exists, everyone in their wake pays … it’s just a matter of time. Living as wholehearted leaders—whose character and inner life match the external life—directly benefits everyone.

Whose leadership wake have you been in, and how did this person’s leadership and integrity (or lack thereof) impact you?

It may take time to identify the leaders in your life who really affected you and may still be affecting you. If you’ve spent years (even decades) trying to block out the past, chances are you may have forgotten a few details and will need more than a few days to recall them. Or you may feel the question is not worth evaluating because the main issue is not really about how anyone has affected you (as if someone could) but about how you’re affecting others but keep going.

There are no shortcuts to developing character and integrity—a wholehearted life. It takes real guts and grit to jump into the deep end and stay there to uncover where our pain, fears, false beliefs, and unhealthy coping strategies were birthed. But the deep end is also where healing, integrity, character, and healthy leadership emerge.

The longer you put off change, the more people in your wake are being negatively affected, whether you see it or not. Shame is a powerful tool of the enemy to keep us hiding, clawing, and drowning in our own narratives. Jesus said the truth will set us free. Facing the truth of who we are, what we have done, and how we impact others is hard work, but you and those you lead are worth it!