84 Leading with NLP
to themselves. That’s why all progress depends on unreason-
able men.’ I think leaders adapt themselves andthe world to
advance their vision.
values and integrity
A decade of research with over 15,000 managers^4 showed
that they look for integrity in a leader above all else. In-
tegrity? Another abstraction, but then values usually are.
What does it mean?
The word comes from the Latin integras, meaning ‘whole-
ness’. The word ‘integer’, meaning a whole number, comes
from the same root. The opposite is ‘disintegration’ – falling
apart. So integrity means acting as a whole. No double
standards, no saying one thing and doing another. Integrity
creates trust and trust means being true to your principles.
You trust someone you can rely on. Businesses often recite
the mantra that they place the greatest value on their
people, but what happens when profits fall? Too often the
people are the first to go. What do they think of the com-
pany then? And, more importantly, how do the survivors
feel? Valued? Disenchanted? Worried about who’ll be next?
An extensive study of business decisions in medium-sized
European companies showed that nearly two thirds of major
decisions were taken in line with declared company strategy.
That’s not a bad score by any means. However only one third
of the decisions of middling importance and a tiny one in 20
minor decisions were taken in line with company declared
strategy. Well, at least they were true to their principles when
it mattered. But this is only from an outsider’s point of view.
Think what it looked like from the inside. The major deci-
sions, those that were taken in line with company strategy,
were infrequent, usually taken behind closed doors by a
small group of top people and often kept secret for good
commercial reasons that were not generally known. The
small day-to-day decisions that affected the employees im-
mediately were frequent and open, but few of them were