A few days ago, I had a long and meaningful conversation with my father, Prof. Santhiram Raman.
For starters, I excitedly wanted to talk with him about what we were going to do this coming weekend. He celebrates a milestone birthday as he turns seventy-five.
My wife and I are treating my folks to a long luxury weekend away, and I wanted to know what he fancied doing when we are there.
Now, my father loves traveling. That’s where I think I inherit my visceral travel bug.
So it surprised me a little when he sounded like he was keen on discussing something else, rather than our travel plans together, over the phone.
It turned out that he wanted to chat with me about his work-life. I know you are thinking…”what work-life at his age”?
Just don’t forget that Malaysians are redefining our retirement with a Prime Minister who is ninety three. Therefore, we should not be alarmed by such trivialities like age.
My father is at a point where he is mulling over retirement from his current position as Professor and Dean of the education faculty at a local university.
In fact his predicament was that he had made the firm decision to retire and devote time to working with the Penang State Government on projects relating to the education of minority communities. A series of events had triggered off his decision to retire, and bring to close a sterling academic career spanning over five decades.
But once he had decided to do this, and made clear his intention, numerous people ranging from members of his team, to academic colleagues, right up to the Pro-Chancellor of the university, have all made representations to him to ask that he reconsider his retirement.
This was the dilemma he wanted to talk with me about.
I counseled him to opt for retirement from the job on two fronts.
The first was that he had given so much energy to this university and in all his other positions, and had inspired so many students to become committed educators that now he should reward himself, and focus on enriching his own life. I asked him to travel more, visit his friends around the globe, and go to places that he could not go to before, due to his time commitments at work.
The second thing I asked him to consider was his financial independence. Through hard work, being prudent, and with smart investments, he had worked himself to this position of freedom. This meant he no longer needed to work for the accumulation of wealth, and could instead, focus on altruistic pursuits.
He had no disagreement with me. He concurred completely. But, he hesitated.
Upon some probing, he told me that after all his colleagues spoke to him, he was seriously reconsidering retirement.
He had instituted some new ideas at the university, for its growth. These include launching a new programme, which needs to meet the standards of regulators, as well as initiatives to help his faculty team grow to become academics of international repute.
He was worried that leaving at this stage would thwart these projects.
Suffice it for me to say here that it is really not important what his decision actually is. That is, in fact, a private matter for him. What is far more significant for me, from a work standpoint, is my father’s thought processes.
Even at his age, having accomplished so much professionally, his thoughts were centred on being committed to completion.
This is the ultimate hallmark of someone with integrity.
At a time when people leave jobs willy-nilly and jump ship when the going gets tough, the Holy Grail for any employer is the employee who exhibits unparalleled reliability.
Integrity is the fundamental value that is sought after in anyone you hire.
It is when a person demonstrates decent and ethical principles at work. My experience as a leadership coach teaches me that integrity is the foundation on which co-workers build relationships, learn to trust each other, and create solid interactive connections.
Honesty and trust are central tenets to integrity.
If you act with honour and straightforwardness, you will draw others to you because you can be trusted, and you are totally dependable.
The deepest level of integrity is internal.
Ask yourself if you do things just for show or whether you truly live your life with integrity in your mind.
If you can be counted on to behave in decent ways even when no one is watching you or even knows about your performance; then you are living your life with integrity.
Personal integrity is an instinctive conviction to do what is right, and to eschew what is wrong, regardless of the consequences that are attached to your decisions.
This conversation with my father confirmed what I had always believed.
He is, without a doubt, the person with the most integrity that I have ever had the privilege of knowing, or being associated with.
How I wish, my father was working in my team. Happy birthday, Paps!
Shankar R. Santhiram is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller “So, You Want To Get Promoted?”