One more selection of valuable words from Bill Robinson’s book Incarnate Leadership: 5 Leadership Lessons from the Life of Jesus*:

In some ways, it’s easier to demand openness from our organizations than from ourselves.  What do we do when no one is watching, or a least when we think no one is watching?  For most leaders, someone usually is.  I’ve heard integrity defind as “what a person does when no one is looking.”  It’s hard to deny that we feel greater temptation to breach our standards of honesty and consistency when the bright light of accountability goes dark.  Well, here’s a thought: keep the light on.  Paul calls it not making provision for “the flesh” or sin (Romans 13:14 KJV).

I am not implying that integrity requires openness.  Some leaders maintain the highest level of integrity while functioning quite privately in their personal and professional lives.  But openness does encourage integrity.  When Christian leaders subject themselves to visibility and accountability, they reduce dramatically the likelihood of moral or ethical compromises.  Leaders whose assistants always know their whereabouts will like be smart in choosing “where they are about.”

We can all take measures to “keep the light on.”  Positions of leadership often require travel, and travel has gotten brutal.  By the time I arrive at my destination, I’m a wreck.  Agitated, alone in a distant city, feeling deprived at having to be absent from my family, and needing relief from the indignities of air travel, I’m not at the height of my moral strength.  So when I fire up my computer, I find myself tempted to click my way from e-mail to e-crap.  But I don’t.  And one of the reasons I don’t is because I have given permission to our information technology people to check the logs of the websites I’ve visited without notifying me.  Do that and you’ll think twice before you click on garbage.  (Incidentally, a surprising number of people in leadership fail to realize their organizations can track down every website they’ve ever visited.)  I’ve also found that the deprivations of travel can tempt me to live more luxuriously on my business expense account than I would on my own money.  Personally, I don’t think that’s right, so I’ve welcomed people to review my expense reports if they have questions.  Whether our temptations are prompted by travel or by other conditions, the accountability of openness can only help us be the people of integrity God calls us to be. (53-54)

*Robinson, Bill.  Incarnate Leadership: 5 Leadership Lessons from the Life of Jesus.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.