In the Great Room in our Rockford facility is a display that shows the figures of five people climbing ropes up the wall. In the four years these figures have been on the wall, none of them have reached the top.
That’s us . . . never content with where we are, always striving for something more, something better . . . even when we have been recognized as “really good” or even “great” there is still room to grow, to improve.
We wanted to share our journey as we continue to enhance the Field Culture and improve how we apply the message of our Mission Statement and the importance of our Core Values. We will continue to make the climb to becoming an even greater place to work and an even better company to partner with.
We developed the Fieldamentals to help us make our very good culture even better. Each week our President, Jim Derry, will discuss one of our 30 Fieldamentals.
This week’s Fieldamental:
ACT WITH INTEGRITY. Do the right thing, always. Demonstrate an unwavering commitment to do the right thing in every action you take and in every decision you make, especially when no one’s looking. Always tell the truth. If you make a mistake, own up to it, apologize, and make it right. Be impeccable with your word.
There should be no surprise that “Act with Integrity” is Fieldamental #1. Integrity is our first and most important Core Value and in the basis of everything we do as an organization. Integrity is also what dictates many of our behaviors as individuals. The thing about integrity is that it takes a lifetime of good decisions to develop a reputation that you act with integrity, but one major slip up can ruin your reputation forever. The same holds true for our reputation as a company.
Let’s break the definition down to better understand exactly what we mean. On the surface this Fieldamental seems pretty straightforward – “do the right thing”. The tricky part of this one is the standard of “in every action you take and in every decision you make especially when no one’s looking”. That’s what makes this hard. Acting with integrity every time in every situation, everything you do, in every decision you make, does require what we call an unwavering commitment to integrity. Sometimes it is easier to act with integrity when others see or will know what we have done. The real test of true integrity is when we do what is right when no one will ever know what we did. We must always be truthful with each other. This means proactively telling the truth, the ENTIRE truth, even if nobody is asking for it. We can’t leave out selected details that change the facts or put a different “spin” on a situation. We are human and will make mistakes, when this happens, as soon as practical, we need to acknowledge what happened, sincerely apologize, and do whatever is necessary to make the situation right. Your “word” is one of the only things in life that you completely control. You get to decide what you do and what you say. Your words and actions have a major impact on how others perceive you. It is imperative that all of us speak and act with the highest level of integrity all of the time.
There are countless examples of acting with integrity that happen at Field daily:
- Establishing the right prices on a customer order when the PO is wrong
- Ship confirming sales orders with the quantity we actually shipped
- Communicating a very minor defect on incoming material to ensure parts are OK
- Processing a supplier invoices properly if they billed us wrong
- Making sure all of the items on a VMI order are put into the customers bins
- Submitting an accurately expense report for reimbursement
- The list goes on and on
If we personally commit to always doing the “little stuff” (that nobody sees), with integrity, over time, acting with integrity on critical issues will become easier.