As the pundits analyze the meaning of underdogs Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee winning the Iowa Caucuses for their respective political parties, they might overlook the most obvious messages Iowans of both parties were joined sending. The obvious analysis is that both these candidates are seen more outsiders than insiders, meaning that Iowans are united in wanting change. The more useful analysis, though, is that Iowans are advocating that this year’s presidential race needs to be between two presidential candidates who are viewed as having the most integrity, character, honesty, and truthfulness , a more heart-oriented approach, and an ability to unite rather than continue our dangerous trend of divisive polarized spin-oriented politics. Stay tuned as we find out if these largely unspoken priorities turn out to be shared by the rest of the American people in the upcoming presidential primaries.

As I often do, I received an e-mail today from a well-meaning soul warning me about a particularly dangerous internet virus. As an act of Everyday Stewardship I DON”T immediately pass them along to anyone else. I first verify their accuracy.

I do this for as a matter of personal, relationship and collective integrity.

On the level of integrity with myself (personal integrity), only passing along information I have done my best to verify the credibility of is partly about self-respect. I don’t like myself when I am irresponsible.

On the level of relationship integrity, people’s lives are hectic and stressful enough without being sent unnecessary causes for concern. Forward to others these kinds of warnings before making certain they are accurate is asking those we care about to spend unnecessary time and experience unneeded stress.

On the level of collective integrity, all of us are already bathed in a culture of fear. Passing along items such as these before verifying them adds a totally unnecessary layer of fear to this climate. I believe this is a disservice to collective highest good. That is what makes this an opportunity to fulfill our roles as Everyday Stewards.
Verification of internet scams is simple to do, takes only a moment, and is, I believe, a matter of integrity and social responsibility in the Internet age. Verification involves a quick visit to one of the many reputable scam-monitoring websites. I most commonly start my research on either the Snopes website (www.snopes.com) or the Scam Busters website (www.scambusters.org). I simply enter the name of the alert and, voila, information comes up about whether that item is true, partly true or a lie. (You can find additional scam monitoring sites by Googling “internet scams” and “internet fraud.”

You can also simply Google the name of the alert item and then add the word “hoax” or “scam.”)

As an act of Everyday Stewardship, check all alerts to see if they are hoaxes before forwarding them to those you care about. Just because the person forwarded an alert to you is well-intended don’t blindly assume that that this means they have done their homework before forwarding the alert. Check yourself!

The same goes for supposed “news stories,” “commentaries” or “secret information,” especially items allegedly written by people whose credibility you trust, or forwarded to you by someone you trust. Agreeing or disagreeing with the information you receive does not always mean that it is true or accurate. This is a matter of discernment.

For more about discernment and becoming a better Everyday Steward, read my book, The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves Us All. It will be released in January 2008. In the meantime, sign up for my free sneak preview eCourse about the book by going to www.willingness.com, clicking on “Freebies” and then clicking on “Free eCourses.” Or, click here to go there directly.

A study of over 9000 British civil servants published in yesterday’s Archives of Internal Medicine confirms the connection between being miserably married and increased risks of heart problems. The study revealed that those in the most unhappy marriages were 34% more likely to have heart attacks or other significant heart problems than those in happy marriages.

Think about this study’s findings in terms of being in or out of integrity with our three core drives (authenticity/personal wellbeing, nourishing and effective connection with others, and having a positive impact in the world). The results illustrate how the more we are out of integrity with our core drive for positive connection with others, the more our integrity with ourselves also suffers, possibly to the point of being fatal. Conversely, the more we are in integrity with our core drive for positive connection with others, the more we are able to benefit from the extremely positive health benefits that good relationships have previously been shown to provide.

My forthcoming book, The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World, shows how to move into integrity with all three of your core drives.

To sign up for a free introductory eCourse about integrity intelligence, visit the Free eCourses page in the Freebies section of my website, www.willingness.com. Here is the direct link to that page:
www.willingness.com/ecourses.html

Jerry Sanders, mayor of San Diego, California, earlier this week changed his political position about gay marriage. I have closely watched the video of his announcement (the link is below).
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=26888@kpix.dayport.com

Many will agree with Sanders’ position and many will disagree. Some may say this was a political stunt on Sanders’ part. For me, all such arguments miss the point.

My intuitive sense in watching the Sanders video is that he was speaking from his heart about a decision he truly found to be a heart-wrenching one to make. As he said, in the end he chose to lead with his heart. My suspicion is that this is a man who dared to do some courageous inner grappling that too few of us allow or trust ourselves to do. The grappling he did was between the ideology to which he subscribes and his heart’s deepest sense of what is right.

Ideologies provide people with a sense of stability and predictability in an unstable and insecure world. When our need for stability and predictability overrules our heart’s deepest truth, deep inner turmoil always results. This turmoil can propel a person into even greater ideological rigidity or into a deeper state of teachability, depending on their inner courage or inner cowardace.

An ideology is simply an imperfect lens through which we attempt to make sense of a world that will always be far more complex than any one ideological lens can capture. Any leader who does not recognize this is a dangerous leader.

When any of us makes adherence to an ideology more important than listening to the voice for love, for our own deepest humanity, we have turned our ideology from our servant into our master. This kind of ideological rigidity is a form of fanaticism, and fanaticism is an illness that corrupts integrity and contributes profoundly to the problems we face in today’s world.

In contrast, having the courage and wisdom to allow our ideology to co-mingle with our deepest sense of love and inner knowing is a doorway to greater integrity. I applaud Jerry Sanders not as much for the position he took as for his courage to undertake the mighty inner battle between his own sense of humanity and his ideological convictions, and, in the process, allowing his ideological lens to be informed and transformed by his sense of humanity.

To me, this is an example of leadership integrity. Our stand on an issue is no measure whatsoever of our leadership integrity. The courage to do our own version of what Sanders did regarding any issues our ideology is in conflict with higher love is one of the measures of leadership integrity. The courage to arrive at whatever positions we arrive at through this kind of humility, rather than through ideological rigidity, is one of the measures of leadership integrity.

I applaud you for your role-modeling, Mayor Sanders.

This post is a follow-up to my last one about how Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick role-modeled lack of integrity. This post is about how he may be beginning his long journey toward integrity.

After pleading guilty in court, Michael Vick issued an apology to the public, to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, to Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, to Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino and to his teammates. He accepted his responsibility to shoulder the consequences he will experience due to his lack of integrity, which at this time appears likely to include prison time and having to return to the Atlanta Falcons millions of dollars from his football contract with them. He asked forgiveness and promised to redeem himself.

Good start. Long road ahead. I do not say this with anger or malice, but rather as encouragement and support.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank said he believed Vick’s comments were sincere and heartfelt, and that he accepted Vick’s apologies despite also understandably being “profoundly disappointed” in him. Baseball immortal Hank Aaron, a member of the Falcon’s advisory board, said he believes Vick’s apology was sincere. He also said, “I’ve never seen anybody who had so much ability who had fallen so far. He’s got to get his life straightened out and I think that he will. It’s too bad he had to fall this far in order to do it.”

Yes it is. Vick is by far not the first person who had to be what I call “bludgeoned into surrendering” his ego in order to fully open to true, deep and lasting transformation. I speak here as someone who also has had to be “bludgeoned into surrender” at times in my life.

Michael Vick has taken his first step toward bringing himself back into integrity. His words now need to not only be followed by actions that match those words but by an inner transformation process that makes him capable of consistently aligning his words and his actions from now on. Only time will tell the extent to which this occurs. He has my heartfelt best wishes on his journey. Perhaps he is ready to read my book, The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World. If anyone how reads this post knows Michael Vick, please contact me. I would be delighted to send Vick a pre-publication draft of the manuscript so he does not have to wait the January 2008 release date before he can get the final version.

The Vatican has issued a set of guidelines to help bring motorists into what I would term Driving Integrity.  Here are the Vatican’s “Ten Commandments for Motorists:”

1. You shall not kill
2. The road shall be for you a means of communication between people and not of mortal harm
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events
4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents
5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin
6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting to condition to do so
7. Support the families of accident victims
8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness
9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party
10. Feel responsible toward others

How people drive can be a powerful reflection of their integrity as well as reflecting aspects of their integrity that are in need of upgrading.  I urge you to practice being a compassionate driver who drives (and parks!) in ways that serve collective highest good.