At the heart of integrity is the fact that people can trust you. In light of being a better leader and being more productive, having others trust you is a key element. That makes working on your integrity even more important. Not as a trick, but as a core building block of your personality.

The saying goes: “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to fix”. Working on your integrity is hard work and requires a lot of time. It will pay off though, and it’s something that’s of value your whole life.

Want some ideas? You’re probably already doing most of these things:

1. Make promises and keep them. This is one of the building blocks of someone with integrity. Start small and build out on the promises as you go along.
2. Be honest. This can be painful, but in the end it is always the way to go. By sharing what you really think, people will learn that you’re someone that won’t hold back the truth. (Obviously that doesn’t mean that you’ll need to work on the way you’re communicating that truth)
3. Keep yourself and your environment clean and organized. By taking care of your surroundings, you show respect for things of other people. By taking care of yourself, you make it visible that details matter and that you have a great foundation to build upon.
4. Be influenced by the proper people. In order to grow in integrity, you’ll need the right set of persons around you. This could mean that you need to change which friends you hang out with, if they do not have a good influence on you.

There is a lot more to this than these four points, but there is so much to talk about that I wanted to start small. Enough to think about for today.