Integrity: Top Value to Look for in an Executive Hire

Early in my Business career, I made a deliberate decision to subscribe to Fortune Magazine.

Not a cheap investment at the time given my modest income then; but, to gain knowledge through reading a highly reputable business publication has been well worth it. Given my Clinical Psychology background, I knew I had to have some kind of anchor jumping into the Industry. Thank you Fortune Magazine!

Among the high-profile, successful investors, corporate personalities and management gurus featured time & again, Warren Edward Buffet ranks #1. He struck me hard for his groundedness despite being so successful and wealthy. He is straightforward. A man of Integrity.

Mr. Buffet, among the world’s most successful investors of the 20th century, together with his long-time Business Partner/Charlie Munger, have presumably hired executives, mid-career talent and fresh college graduates in all their long years in business.

I have recently came across an interesting Farnam Street (FS) blog that quoted Mr. Buffet as below and to which I totally agree:

“You’re looking for 3 things, generally, in a person. Intelligence, Energy and Integrity. And if they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two.”

As long-time Executive Search Consultant, Integrity has always been at the top of Values that I seek in corporate executives. A core Value of The Executive Edge, Inc. (TEEI), it is why TEEI rejects malpractices in the Industry propagated by deceptive and misleading so-called search firms.

FS blog further quoted Mr. Buffet below:

“Everyone has Intelligence and Energy or you wouldn’t be here otherwise. But the Integrity is up to you. You weren’t born with it. You can’t learn it in school.”

No wonder, FS publication also wrote and I quote: “Buffet and Munger were fortunate. They were both smart and worked hard to improve on that advantage. The Integrity, however, they chose. “