At some point in consideration of Gavin Opperman’s speech of 25 January 2008 at the Monsoon Lagoon, Emperor’s Palace, I could not help wonder exactly what the meaning of the word “integrity” is.
Along with many impressive announcements and inspiring statements, Gavin also favoured the audience with a few considerable undertakings. This included commitments to Government, a pledge of support to customers and confirmation of our focus on excellent service delivery. Through all this, reference was also made to our “integrity”.
One day later, when Gavin addressed approximately 1260 members of the Absa Home Loans team at the annual road show, he said that we aim to be “The best of the best…. No doubt it means maintaining the high standard of integrity we have established in terms of good corporate citizenship”.
As a newcomer to the Absa Group, I deemed it appropriate to understand exactly what our leader was talking about…
According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, synonyms of this word are honesty, uprightness, morality wholeness and unity. It is explained as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change.
Research on the history of the word “integrity” revealed that the word stems from the mathematical term “integer”, which simply refers to a status of being unified, complete and consistent.
Whilst thinking of a good example of a famous person who had lived a life of “integrity”, the face of Mother Teresa immediately jumped to mind and then I remembered her famous quote: “I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me with so much”.
The mental picture of Mother Teresa took me completely off the definitions of the word and strangely enough, within this context, the word “integrity” now also included a flavour of “servanthood”, although the principle of leadership was unmistakeable.
I realised that “integrity” prolongs leadership and furthermore, it establishes credibility. It provides guidance and it also confirms direction. For us, the challenge probably lies in the fact that “integrity” must be present in all areas of our lives, as people learn more from what we are than from what we say.
Since it appears that our “integrity” is something precious to develop and also to guard, we must decide beforehand never to compromise and never to be corrupted. We must be on guard at all times and we must draw a clear line on the limits of our behaviour.
I believe it is wise to surround ourselves with good people and it is clear that we have no other option that to be fully accountable to one another. It was also Mother Teresa who said “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person”.
The integrity of Absa Home Loans starts and ends with each and every one of us, in everything we do. Are you ready to become “the best of the best”?
Kind regards,
Jan DavelHead: External Business Initiation
Absa Home Loans
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