Integrity is everything, by MD Lisa Shaddick

Ethics. It’s a word that’s used frequently in business. High value is quite-rightly placed against good business ethics. But what does that really mean? Working as an ethically responsible business means that an organisation conducts itself aligned to a set of principles, such as honesty, fairness, decency, legal adherence, respect for others and trustworthiness. Leadership must support all ethical practices and behaving in this way is one of the critical elements for long-term success.

But having an ethical business approach is only as good as the people who make up the organisation. At Indaba, one of our core values is integrity, which is the critical link between ethics and action. Some may even argue that with integrity, ethical behaviour is simply a natural progression. Integrity lies in personal principles that stand above all others, including honestly, decency, respect, compassion, responsibility and dependability.

In a world where our newsfeeds are full of conflict, and outing corporate “baddies”, an organisation that delivers success backed by ethical behaviour and integrity, is a lot less tantalising.

As a team who lives the core value of integrity, all of Indaba’s decisions and behaviours are driven by these principles. Sometimes, that is not the easy route, but it is the right route. And even when we have had to draw upon moral courage to make difficult decisions, the overriding result has been increased trust between us and our clients.

For us, ethics and integrity are not buzzwords. They are guiding principles – personally and professionally – for each of us. Our strong values underpin a successful and fulfilled team, and ensure our clients trust in our word, and our work.

Author C S Lewis is widely-credited with the saying, “integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching”.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.