#7: Personal qualities part one: Integrity

There is a full list of suggested qualities in From Crew to Captain, but there are some traits that I consider to be particularly important.

The first of these is Integrity. Irrespective of what you call your business, you and it are joined at the hip from day one. And as in all walks of life, it takes a long time to build a positive reputation, but you can lose it in a heartbeat.

My dear old dad use to say “treat others like you expect to be treated” and that really rings true in running your own business.

Corporations talk about values and principles, and that should hold good for you; it is important that you live out your personal code of conduct in your business, and build a reputation based around trust and reliability. You do not want to have a reputation for:

• Promising something then failing to follow up or deliver
• Turning up late for meetings, or not turning up at all
• Being a difficult (as opposed to tough) negotiator
• Being a bad payer

So integrity is vital in my work and it will be in yours.

If you are interested in the question of integrity, why not take a ‘moral DNA test’ at www.moraldna.org