HIRING FOR INTEGRITY: THE COURAGEOUS EXECUTIVE LEADER
By Terri Davis
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”
— C.S. Lewis
There’s a chronic and long-standing dearth of moral courage at the top of too many companies. Which is a strange fact really, given probably every last one of us is raised to tell the truth and to stand up for what’s right. Somehow from childhood to adulthood the importance of integrity either gets whittled away or abandoned all at once in the pursuit of personal achievement, as though these two things, integrity and personal achievement, weren’t concomitant.
But it turns out you can have one without the other.
Boards look for track records. Investors are dazzled by charisma. Founders seek alignment. And recruiters? They’re often still searching for the safe hire not the right hire. But it’s not just strategic competence or operational excellence we should be searching for. It’s definitely not charm that should win the day. And especially we should not be searching for the safe hire. What we should all be looking for are candidates with integrity.
The Character Void
In an excellent chapter on Courage, the great American philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote about the elevating qualities of moral courage, bravery, and integrity:
“Animal resistance … is no doubt common; but the pure article, courage with eyes, courage with conduct, self‑possession at the cannon’s mouth, cheerfulness in lonely adherence to the right, is the endowment of elevated characters.”
As far back as we have history, courage and integrity have been heralded as among the highest virtues. Integrity in the corporate world isn’t such an absolute. In fact, it’s something that gets people fired as much or more than it gets them promoted. The tallest poppy gets cut down; lift your head up and you’re bound to have it cut off; there are phrases like these that we have for people who stand up for what’s right only to be mown down for doing so.
The corporate world more or less trains everyone that playing it safe, staying quiet, towing the line, not saying what you really feel or mean, are virtuous things.
From a recruiting standpoint, personal integrity is assumed rather than evaluated. We look for and trust references (who have every incentive to be diplomatic). We probe for strengths and weaknesses (and get rehearsed answers). We screen for fit (which is usually code for “being like us”). And then we all act shocked when a CEO flames out in a scandal of her or his making, when moral or ethical conduct is breached, when shortcuts are taken, when investors are deliberately misled.
We shouldn’t be surprised. We’ve optimized executive search around competency and charisma. What we need are more leaders grounded in something deeper than ambition.
What Integrity Looks Like at the Executive Level
Integrity isn’t one thing. It’s a constellation of traits that reveal themselves over time. But in executive search, we need some way to spot them early. That means looking for three things:
- Moral courage. The willingness to make unpopular decisions. The refusal to look away when something’s wrong. The ability to speak up even when it costs.
- Long-term thinking. Integrity shows up in how leaders define success. Are they chasing quarterly wins or building enduring value?
- Ethical reasoning. How do they make decisions when there’s no playbook? When the law is silent? The best leaders can talk you through their thinking without spinning it.
Hiring for integrity means finding the rare leader who can be loyal and honest and competent. Someone who can serve the mission and challenge the method. Someone who knows when and how to push back and when to walk away. These aren’t qualities you see in a CV. But they can be surfaced if you know how to look.
How to Evaluate Candidates for Integrity
- Change the interview conversation.
Don’t ask about values. Ask about trade-offs.
Ask: “Tell me about a time you made a decision that cost you politically but felt right morally. What did you do?”
Or: “Have you ever challenged a founder or board member? What was the result?”
Look for nuance. Listen for discomfort. Watch them relive the inner struggle it took. - Dig into patterns, not just wins.
Too often we obsess over results. I mean, every resume writer tells candidates to play up their results. But instead of just results, can you find a way to get insight into how those results were achieved? Were people hurt? Were profits made at the cost of purpose? Is there a trail of short-termism masked as success? Integrity leaves clues. - Ask reference questions no one else does.
Don’t just ask if they were good at their job. Ask: “If you had a child working for this person, would you be proud or worried?”
Or: “Would you trust this person with your company in a crisis even if you weren’t there watching?”
The pause and the answer will tell you a lot. - Use ethical dilemmas as tests.
Present them with a gray-zone scenario. Something with real tension. See how they think, not just what they say. Can they articulate a process that blends values with strategy?
Hiring for Integrity is Hard
It’s also something we often hear isn’t very important, at least not as important as achieving success at all costs. Many leaders today have said variations of ‘the end justifies the means’. Or ‘empathy is a weakness’. One could argue in the dog-eat-dog world or shark infested waters of business, that integrity is for suckers. It doesn’t matter. And you might be right. Because lying and cheating and exploiting people have become ingrained qualities of business itself. There’s a sucker born every minute, as PT Barnam said.
But when you don’t make integrity part of the equation you build organizations on sand. Anything goes. And eventually what commonly goes last is the business itself. Look at Enron. Look at Bernie Madoff. Look at the 2008 banking crisis. Look at the countless businesses run to ground without integrity.
Integrity isn’t the soft stuff. It’s the hard edge of true leadership. It’s what separates companies that endure from those that fly apart spectacularly.
A New Model for Search Firms and Boards
For executive recruiters and boards, this means expanding the definition of what makes someone “great” for the role. It means treating character as rigorously as capability.
The best search firms will build ethical intelligence into their interview frameworks. They’ll develop deeper reference processes, and coach clients on what to look for and how to value it.
Hiring for integrity isn’t about being idealistic. It’s a highly pragmatic quest. Because when it comes down to it, character is strategy.
“Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong… To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spotting talent is relatively easy. Spotting integrity and moral courage takes a little more bravery to discover.
