Integrity Ideas are specific actions a leader can consider during the Re-Align step of Integriosity^®—actions that will begin to Re-Align the organization with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities.  You can find more Integrity Ideas at Integrous | Integrity Ideas (integriosity.com)

INTEGRITY IDEA: Don’t Fake It to Make It

“Don’t Fake It to Make It” is about faithful leaders resisting the pressure and temptation to mimic, adopt, or rationalize business as usual practices in order to achieve career “success” or marketplace “success” for the organization they lead.

It recognizes that fear and wisdom are very different motivators, and that fear of the world can never lead to doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. 

Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization.  Some are helpful ideas to consider as a faithful leader prayerfully discerns the best stewardship of the organization. Others may be important steps in the RENEW/RE-ALIGN/RE-IMAGINE/RESTORE process.

“Don’t Fake It to Make It” is in the “necessary” category because leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires authenticity.

Making It

At the heart of “Don’t Fake It to Make It” is what version of “making it” really drives the leader’s behavior.  It is the WHY toward which their leadership and the organization they lead are ultimately aimed. It comes down to identity.

As we discussed in detail in post #144 (What’s Your Noun), Matthew 6:24 tells us that a person can have only one primary identity (and an organization can have only one ultimate priority):

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

Although a person can only have one primary identity, they can have many secondary identities, for example, a person can be a Christian, a businessperson, a wife (or husband), a mother (or father), a daughter (or son), all at the same time.

But when push comes to shove, there is one identity they view, consciously or subconsciously, as the primary identity—the one they will protect even if it means sacrificing success in their secondary ones.  Our self-worth and value are wrapped up in whatever we see as our primary identity.

For business as usual—business in the way of the world—”making it” for an organization flows from the ultimate priority of Profit as Purpose. That is “success.”

For a faithful leader of an organization, “making it” comes down to their primary identity. It is either an identity rooted in WHO they are as a Christian or an identity rooted in something else. For organizational leaders, that “something else” is most likely WHAT they do—businessperson, lawyer, entrepreneur, etc.  “Success” ultimately means doing well in that primary identity.

Post #173 (The Toxicity of “Work as Usual”) was devoted to exploring the four key aspects of work as usual that flow from the attributes of business as usual.  One of those is that work becomes a person’s primary identity, and secondary identities grounded in things like faith, family and fitness will be compromised or even sacrificed to ensure success at work. A second attribute is that the focus of business as usual on Profit as Purpose leads to work as usual becoming all about “making money”, whether for survival or power.

For a faithful leader who identifies primarily with WHAT they do rather than WHO they are as a Christian, “making it” aligns with what the world values—financial or career success. We believe a WHO identity leads to a “making it” that is focused on Humanizing People, Beautifying the World and Glorifying God.

Faking It

For a faithful leader with a work as usual heart of “making it, “faking it” in faith/work integration can manifest as hiding faith or hiding behind faith. But “hiding” must not be confused with a prayerful decision to be covert in the pursuit of faithful stewardship.

As we have written in many posts, the exercise of prayerful wisdom may result in a faithful leader discerning that a covert approach to the integration of faith and work is the most faithful stewardship of the organization.  That is not hiding, provided the leader is willing to share and explain the faith that informs their leadership and inspires the bigger WHY of the organization if asked.  Prayerful covertness recognizes the warning in Matthew 10:16:

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Hiding a Faith Identity. People can try to hide an identity when they fear the consequences of revealing that identity or when they are trying to get something. When we see this in Scripture, it usually does not turn out well, or it leads to relational breakage. Consider these examples:

• Gibeonites. In Joshua 9, after the Gibeonites heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai and feared Israel’s advance, the Gibeonites anticipated their destruction and hid their identity by dressing up as travelers from a distant land, tricking the Israelites into a promise to keep them safe by claiming to be just “passing through.” They stayed alive, but when Joshua discovered the deception he “made them day cutters of wood and drawers of water.”

• Ephraimites. In Judges 12:5-6, we read an account reminiscent of World War II stories of American soldiers exposing enemy spies by asking questions about baseball that only an American would likely answer correctly. When the Gileadites defeated the Ephraimites, some Ephraimite fugitives tried to deny their identity but were exposed and slaughtered when they couldn’t pronounce “Shibboleth.”

• Peter Denying Jesus. Afraid of being identified with Jesus during his persecution, Peter tries to hide his identity three times only to be discovered because of his accent (Matthew 26:73). He “wept bitterly” when he recognized what he had done.

• Jacob. In Genesis 27, Jacob hides his identity by impersonating his brother Esau in order to get his father Isaac’s blessing. This deception leads to relational breakage with both Esau and Isaac.

The most poignant example for illustrating the difference between hiding and being covert is the different ways in which Paul and Peter interact with those to whom they are ministering.

Paul. In 1 Corinthians 9-20-22, Paul explains how he adapts for different audiences in order to remove unnecessary barriers to the Gospel.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews… To those outside the law I became as one outside the law… that I might win those outside the law… I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

Paul’s adaptation is mission-driven, like the faithful leader who prayerfully discerns that a covert approach to faith/work integration is the most appropriate for faithful stewardship.

Peter. In Galatians 2:11-13, Paul describes confronting Peter “to his face” at Antioch because Peter had been eating with Gentile believers, but then withdrew and separated himself when certain men came from James. Paul says Peter did this because he was “fearing the circumcision party” and calls the conduct hypocrisy.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Paul names Peter’s motive not as wisdom but as fear. Peter may have had a ministry-preservation rationale, but Paul saw a gospel-compromising fear. Moreover, Peter’s fear did not remain personal; it became cultural, because “the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him,” and even Barnabas was led astray.

The difference between being covert about faith through wise stewardship and hiding faith out of a fear of not succeeding is the difference between faithful adaptation and fearful fakery.

Faithful leaders pursuing the success of the world may feel pressured or tempted not only to hide their faith but also to mimic or adopt business as usual practices, and avoid testing those practices against the plumb line of their faith, if they fear that deviating from business as usual will threaten their career success or threaten the marketplace success of the organization they lead. This is faking it to make it.

Hiding Behind Faith. Faith as usual practices can allow a leader to hide behind faith, feeling as though they are aligning their leadership and the organization with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities even if the WHY—the heart—of the organization remains aligned with the Profit as Purpose priority of the world.

For example, a faithful leader can go down the Side Road of Individualizing and believe they are fully integrating faith and work by being ethical or kind to others. Likewise, the leader could become generous with their profits on the Side Road of Monetizing, giving to faith-related causes, or institute the overt faith symbolism of Cosmeticizing, in each case receiving accolades from the faith community while the business they lead operates just like any other worldly business.

When faith as usual practices become smoke and mirrors for obscuring a business with a heart of Profit as Purpose, the faithful leader is still faking it to make it.

For a faithful leader and an organization that is committed to pursuing the integration of faith and work, “faking it to make it” is inauthentic. It signals to employees that the real culture is business as usual and the behavior that is valued is behavior that aligns with Profit as Purpose.

Ultimately, it will lead to the same “misses” that we described in post #179 (The Misses of ‘Faith as Usual”): missed purpose for the organization, missed calling for its leaders and missed flourishing of its people. It leads to the Simon & Garfunkel lyric, “I’ve just been fakin’ it. Not really makin’ it.”

CONTINUUM: Practices

The Integriosity model organizes “heart change” along six Covert-Overt Continuums.  There is nothing inherently magic about these categories, but we believe they are helpful in thinking about practical execution of a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values, and a Re-Imagined Culture.  The Continuums are Prayer, Proclamation, Policies, Practices, Products, People.

Each Continuum represents an area in which leaders can begin to think about, plan, and institute Re-Alignment changes to the heart of the organization.

“Don’t Fake It to Make It” is on the Practices Continuum. It involves practices a faithful leader can adopt to ensure that the pursuit of faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing is authentic and that the real culture of the organization is aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.

COVERT-OVERT RATING: Very Covert

The Integriosity model breaks the Covert-Overt Continuums into six gradations—from Highly Covert to Highly Overt—that we believe are helpful in beginning to pray and think about what is most appropriate for an organization at a particular moment in time.

Most Integrity Ideas have one place on the scale.  Some can vary depending on how they are implemented.  We identify “Don’t Fake It to Make It” as Very Covert (an overtly faith-based action known only to the faithful leader) because it is about the leader’s identity and how that translates into an organizational identity.

“Don’t Fake It to Make It” can be moved toward the Overt end of the Continuum by, for example, engaging additional employees in authenticity exercise or explaining how those exercises relate to Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities..

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, Kingdom

When we categorize faith-based actions, we also consider the stakeholders principally impacted by the action: Employees, Customers/Clients, Owners, Suppliers/Vendors, Community and Kingdom.

“Don’t Fake It to Make It” impacts all stakeholders when a faithful leader ensures that their primary identity is a WHO identity and the organization’s purpose, values and culture are authentically aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.

IMPLEMENTATION

Faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires organizational authenticity as well as faithful leaders committed to personal authenticity—authenticity through identity, sincerity, consistency, and transparency.

Authenticity with a faith-centered identity is not easy in a business as usual world. E.E. Cummings wrote:

To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

In post #189 (First Things – Righteousness), we explained why the First Thing of Righteousness as part of faithful integrity is much more than “doing good”, being ethical or even “doing the right thing”. It requires doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.

A faithful leader and an organization pursuing faithful integrity need a “making it” that aligns with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities, and that “making it” must be authentic.  In other words, the primary identity of the leader and the WHY of the organization must be more than good intentions, proclamations, and pretty signs on the wall.

Authenticity for a leader and an organization can be thought of as having four components:

• Identity:

Leader: The leader exemplifies a WHO identity and is clear about their commitment to the organization’s bigger WHY. Whether or not the leader decides to announce their WHO identity, they must prioritize it and live it out.  However, the leader must be openly and publicly committed to the identity–the bigger WHY–of the organization.

Organization: The organization is clear about its WHY–its purpose, priorities and its values. That means they are written down for people to see. “And the Lord answered me: ‘Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.‘” (Habakkuk 2:2 ESV)

• Sincerity:

Leader: It is not enough for a leader to announce a WHO identity or alignment with the organization’s stated WHY–they must actually prioritize that identity and believe in that WHY as the ultimate WHY for the right reasons (and not just a nice marketing slogan to try to make people feel good while they are being driven through Profit as Purpose). As John Maxwell observes, people will know and they will follow:

People emulate what they see modeled. . . . What leaders do, potential leaders around them do. What they value, their people value. The leaders’ goals become their goals. (John Maxwell)

Organization: The WHY of the organization that is written down is actually the WHY to which its leaders are committed. An organization that has an eloquent mission statement declaring its WHY as “to glorify God” lacks sincerity (which means it lacks integrity) if it is actually operated on the basis of Profit as Purpose.

• Consistency:

Leader: The leader must prioritize and live out a WHO identity even when it is difficult, and they must make clear through words and actions that the organization’s WHY applies to everyone, under all circumstances, all the time.  That means the Re-Imagined Purpose and Re-Imagined Values that drive the Re-Imagined Culture apply to the leaders, apply in little things as well as big, and apply even when it may be painful (and unprofitable).

Organization: The organization operates consistently in accordance with its WHY. Purpose, priorities and values are not just for when they are convenient–they are most important exactly when they are most inconvenient. This is easier when things are going well and much more difficult when times are tough. Seth Godin has astutely noted: “When we make a ‘just this once’ exception, we’ve already made a decision about what’s truly important. . . . What makes it a principle is that we do it now, even though (especially though) it’s hard.”

• Transparency:

Leader: A leader should be honest and open about their WHO identity–the faith perspective they personally prioritize (whether shared proactively or in response to curiosity, it will help stakeholders appreciate the motivation behind the leader’s actions).  A leader’s commitment to the WHY of the organization should be loud and clear–communicated through words and actions.

Organization: The organization is clear and open about its WHY–what it wants to achieve and for what it stands. The organization’s WHY should be understood by its owners, employees, customers, vendors and community. They should understand it not only because they can read it, but also because they can see it. Its WHY is not just declared in a sign on the wall–it is reflected in the heart of the organization.

“Don’t Fake It to Make It” is about integrity. In the words of Richard Rohr, “Integrity largely has to do with purifying our intentions and being honest about our motives.” It is purifying intentions to the right version of “making it” and then not “faking it.”

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): When I first faced the reality of trying to integrate being a Christian and a partner in a Wall Street law firm, I knew nothing about identities or Biblical priorities. I was not in a position to align the organization with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities, so it was all about my own behavior. I was definitely “faking it to make it” on the individual front.  To start with, I was certainly hiding my faith out of a fear that it would not be well-received (largely because a first attempt to be transparent was not well received).  I also hid behind faith as usual Side Roads. For me, Agonizing eventually led to Individualizing (I tried to be kinder), Monetizing (I became more generous) and to a very small extent Cosmeticizing (I put a Bible on a bookshelf).  This experience turned out to be a training ground for Integrous.

ESSENCE:  Integrity Ideas are specific practical actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way.

INTEGRITY IDEA: Don’t Fake It to Make It

“Don’t Fake It to Make It” is about faithful leaders resisting the pressure and temptation to mimic, adopt, or rationalize business as usual practices in order to “succeed” personally in their career or for the organization they lead to “succeed” in the marketplace. It recognizes that fear and wisdom are very different motivators, and that fear of the world can never lead to doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. “Faking it” can manifest as hiding faith or hiding behind faith. As we have written in many posts, the exercise of prayerful wisdom may result in a faithful leader discerning that a covert approach to the integration of faith and work is the most faithful stewardship of the organization.  The difference between being covert about faith through wise stewardship and hiding faith out of a fear of not succeeding is the difference between faithful adaptation and fearful fakery. Faith as usual practices can allow a leader to hide behind faith, feeling as though they are aligning their leadership and the organization with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities even if the WHY—the heart—of the organization remains aligned with the Profit as Purpose priority of the world. Faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires organizational authenticity as well as faithful leaders committed to personal authenticity—authenticity through identity, sincerity, consistency, and transparency.

COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Practices

COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Very Covert

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, Kingdom

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Photo credit: Original image by Sydney Latham on Unsplash
(photo cropped)