Integrity: Core Issues in Ethics and Person Essay

Integrity is not just one of the seven army values a soldier should live by, it is the basis and foundation of trust, responsibility, respect, and honesty. If a soldier or anyone for that matter does not have integrity they will not be able to succeed in their profession, relationships, and in life. The more honest choices a person makes the more he can be trusted, but not just his word will be trusted, that person will gain more responsibility, better leadership positions, and more importantly more respect that person will gain. The more you lead your life by integrity the better and easier it will be. When asked a question you should be honest and you should think about your answer so that you are relaying correct information. Integrity has many meanings, doing what’s right legally and morally, being honest, upright, and decent in our dealings with others. When we are guided by integrity, our thoughts, actions, and words are in line with each other, our actions align with ou r principles. Our conduct speaks for us, better than words ever could. It becomes the basis for both reputation and self-respect. Integrity demands courage. No matter who you are talking to you should be honest not untruthful, even if it makes someone upset. You should live with integrity everyday of your life no matter what. Developing integrity requires internal honesty, because we can’t be honest with others unless we are honest with ourselves. It requires self-awareness, since we cannot accurately communicate what we do not know. Integrity is not just a word, it’s a code to live by to lead a life of honesty and respect. If everyone in the world were to live with integrity the world would be a much better place to live in. people would be honest, respectful, and they would do the right thing no matter what. If a person with integrity were to find a wallet for instance, that person would try to find the rightful owner of the wallet. If the owner was not found they would turn the wallet into the police station or to a lost and found where they had found it. Having integrity means you don’t do anything or say anything that deceives anyone. You do not lie, you don’t cheat, and you do not even bend the truth. Having integrity can also mean you having personal courage. Having the personal courage to stand up for what is right no matter the circumstances is very important to one’s integrity, if you see someone doing something wrong it is important to correct them politely so now they know what’s wrong and they can fix it before the problem gets to bad or out of control. A person should be straight and honest about everything no matter the consequences. You should never try to even deceive someone because they will find the truth about it. People of integrity can be counted on to stand up for what it right, even if it is unpopular, and to do the right thing even when there is no one around to see. Integrity allows other people to trust you because they know that we value our commitments and seek to live by them. Every soldier in the military should live with integrity because we are all a brotherhood, everyone is a family in the military. We should all be true to ourselves, civilians, and especially our fellow service members. Integrity does not discriminate either. It does not matter who asks the question, who is looking, or who is not looking you should always be truthful, and do the right thing no matter what. If a person alone and they know or even think they’re doing something wrong they shouldn’t do it, that is showing integrity and showing others who you think may not be looking that you can do the right thing and be trusted when someone might need it most. Without integrity no one can trust you, e ven if you are telling the truth, no one will believe you because you have already broken their trust in you. They will not only check up on you constantly but they will also not believe you until they confirm it for themselves. When you show the lack of integrity to someone they have to take time out of their day and away from their families to either square you away or find out the truth, which makes it much worse on you if you did lie about something. It is always best to tell the truth the first time though you may be punished for messing up it will be a lot easier to tell the truth than to lie about it and have to make up more lies to cover up the lies you already made. You must have the courage and honor to tell the truth the first time. Not only is lying morally wrong but it will break the bond of a man’s word and it will take a very long time to make it up and rebuild that trust again. You cannot have responsibility without having integrity either. No one will trust you to do anything or to put you in charge of anything because not only can they not trust you because you lied to them but because you have failed them at what they expected out of you. At a first impression people will have trust in you unless you lie to them or show you a reason not to trust you. If you lie to someone you show them not only that you are a liar but you have no respect for that person. Everyone deserves respect but the level of respect they deserve determines on the level of respect they show for other people and the amount of responsibility they can show a person. You must also have self-respect to have integrity if you don’t respect yourself you cannot respect anyone else in this world. If someone put you in charge of other men you are responsible for their well-being, they should be able to come to you with any problem that might arise in their lives Honesty is the biggest factor of integrity in my opinion, to have integrity you MUST have honesty. You must be able to show a person that you can be trusted, but first you must have honesty in yourself. Without having honesty in yourself it is impossible to be honest to other people. it is much easier to tell someone the truth first off than to lie to them because you will not only have lied once but you will have to make up more lies to cover up the first lie and more lies to cover up those and when someone finds out the truth it will be much worse on you than it would’ve been if you had just told the truth in the first place. If you lie to someone once you will continually lie to them unless you stop the lying and come forth with the truth and stand there take your punishment and learn from your mistakes right away and not have to keep making them. your reputation also depends on integrity because if you show a constant lack of integrity you show not only the person who is dealing with you but you show the others around you that you cannot be trusted and they will not want to do anything for you because you will have burned your bridges with them. Your integrity is now gone and your reputation is ruined. Your reputation is something that take a very long time to rebuild much like someone’s trust. It all depends on the persons trust that you lost on how long it takes you to rebuild that trust. Once you finally do regain someone’s trust it is important to keep that persons trust because if you break their trust again you become a habitual liar and you will lose their trust again and possibly forever. Integrity is also a major factor in deal making. If you make a deal or make a commitment you must stick to that deal. Having integrity is like having a contract, though it may not be in writing or an actual legal document it is however like a handshake. When you say you will do something you will do it if you have integrity because it is the morally right thing to do, it is a man’s word and he must have the intestinal fortitude to stick to his word as if it was a contract. A person’s word is all they have in this world because if someone word cannot be trusted they will not make it anywhere in life especially if you make the lack of integrity a habit. Having integrity shows a person you can be trusted with just about any task you are put in charge of. You will do that task and not only do it right you will exceed that person’s expectation. When you are assigned a task it is important to do it right the first time because not only will you have to go back a second time and do the task over again but in the military it could mean someone’s life at stake. A person must give every task they are assigned with over one hundred percent so that not only are the expectations met but they are exceeded by far. The army value integrity is put in place for a reason. That reason is to make an honest, trustworthy, responsible, and honorable soldier. All seven army values tie in together so that if you follow all seven you will be a trustworthy, honest, responsible, and respectable soldier. It is important to have integrity for many reasons because without it you cannot be trusted, responsible and squared away. Once you live your life with integrity you will be trusted more, be able to take on more responsibility, but you will build your reputation in other people. References http://www.army.mil/values/