By Mary Helen Gillespie, Globe Correspondent, 8/25/02

First of two parts

Fueled by fraud and driven by deceit, Corporate America's integrity crisis continues nearly a year after the Enron collapse stunned the nation. Its corrupt legacy of greed and lies demands that business leaders no longer focus solely on the bottom line. Numbers matter, but character matters more. And without the latter, nothing adds up.

Seems like a good time to check in with Cheryl Richardson as to how managers can create effective workplace communities to combat the challenges of the post-Enron environment. Richardson is the best-selling author and personal lifestyle coach whose career started in the Boston area. She used to appear on my radio show. But now that I and that teeny-tiny watt station are both off the air, she makes do with Oprah, PBS, and Oxygen. And she graciously took some time out of a national tour for her latest book, "Stand Up For Your Life" (The Free Press), to talk about ways that managers can exert control over the fallout created by these ethical messes.

Government regulators, reflecting the public outrage of investors and employees at the spate of corporate scandals, have responded with amazing nimbleness and acute insight. Yet accountability can't be legislated anymore than morality can. So managers hoping to leverage the post-Enron workplace as an opportunity to revive and reclaim respect for their company must first look inward.

"All organizations begin and end with an individual," says Richardson, noting that a "systemic cure" is rooted in the actions of individuals at all levels of leadership. Hence a manager's personal development must take precedence over his or her professional development. "To experience true success, you have to start with integrity. It is the foundation."

Richardson defines integrity as a sense of the self where there is no variance between how one thinks, what one says and, most importantly, what one does. Each of these actions must be in sync with the others, with the individual providing the same level of commitment to all three. It's honest portrayal of the self at all times, despite any and all circumstances. Anything less is self-betrayal, or in Richardson's words, "being out of integrity." When a manager's personal beliefs can not withstand the pressures of the corporate workplace, integrity crumbles.

Just last week, a longtime Enron financial executive pleaded guilty to two felony counts, the first guilty pleas in the federal investigation of corporate misconduct at the now-bankrupt Houston-based energy giant. The executive, Michael J. Kopper, has agreed to cooperate with the investigation, leaving many Enron watchers to speculate that the probe will eventually fry bigger fish than Kopper, who served as an aide to Enron's embattled chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.

"Managers who demand an inflexible culture and dishonest practices begin to feel stuck," Richardson says. "If you don't restore your integrity and honor yourself, you'll always be more reliant on what other people think and on what you own than who you are."

This requires emotional strength, and tremendous amounts of self-care, not spreadsheet prowess or stupendous selling skills. It requires that individuals face their own weaknesses honestly, and take action to ensure the necessary internal corrections are made. It also means responding to, and not ignoring, the weaknesses of others. As we all know, all too well in some cases, this can be the hardest part of leadership.

Thus extreme self-care at home, at work, and at play, is a pivotal part of Richardson's message to her corporate audience. She feels very strongly, and preached very loudly, that hateful gossip and bitter office politics weaken and destroy business relationships. As such, this kind of behavior must not be tolerated or rationalized. "We need to get our priorities straight. This means taking the high road," Richardson says.

Next week: Walking through the fear.

Hear it in person: Cheryl Richardson will speak at 7 p.m. Sept. 10 at Arlington Street Church in Boston. Tickets and in formation: 617-536-7050, ext. 23.

Mary Helen Gillespie is president of Gillespie Interactive, a strategic management consultancy. E-mail her at mhg@gillespieinteractive.com.