Integrity is what people who have an internal locus of control tend to express in thought and action.  An internal locus of control is the term psychologists use to describe a person who behaves responsibly because it feels good and it’s good to do.

    Integrity is the consistent alignment of word and deed. When a person lives congruently, or honestly from the inside out, they have the opportunity to be recognized as credible and trustworthy. A person of integrity can be trusted to be truthful—about mistakes and successes, struggles and capabilities. They tend to become good leaders, managers, and followers.

A person of integrity can be trusted to be truthful—about mistakes and successes, struggles and capabilities.

Integrity does not mean that a person is an open book all the time. More so, a person of integrity is not concerned with perfection or making the correct decision. Rather, they are involved in choosing a direction that they can live toward based upon their internal locus of control or value system—making choices and taking action in a certain direction.

A person who lives integrity has practiced response ability as a way of living. They have the capacity to have feelings, express needs, apply desire, accept longings and keep hope. They trust themselves and are able to trust others, as they look for the same trustworthiness in others they have themselves. They are great team members and can give themselves to a mission.

A person who lives integrity has the capacity to have feelings, express needs, apply desire, accept longings and keep hope.

While living with a focus on response ability, they have become responsible. They tend to be trusted, relied upon, and cared about openly.

What can limit the development of integrity is that most of us are taught that responsibility means something other than growing in response ability. So often, the internal voice of the heart is silenced so that a person appears responsible in its most common and tragic use of the word.

When responsible mistakenly means that a person denies their internal experience, becomes an actor for others’ approval to be seen as dependable or valuable, and spends their days in holding up a front, this person, sadly, may be following a belief of integrity that is actually incongruity. The responsive ability of the heart must not be overlooked as the beginning point of integrity.