28. Integrity must fit the person
The art of integrity is to unite position with personality.Taking office as an SP should not mean acting a part. Before taking up office, SPs must therefore establish whether the position suits them, or will suit them, since it is possible to grow into a position. One position fitting is no guarantee that others will fit.
On the one hand integrity is doing what is expected in office, on the other hand being oneself. But it goes further still. The art is to combine the two. Integrity is about the position fitting and feeling natural, about embodying the job.
Someone who takes office as an SP is not acting a part. Good actors can make the audience forget that they are acting, but working with integrity as an SP involves more than acting. People are true SPs when their positions fit their true nature, who they really are. This is existential integrity. The position corresponds, as philosopher Søren Kierkegaard expresses it, with the true self. As a princess once said, “…if it’s not who you are, then you fail. As a princess too.”137 SPs can therefore work honestly but still lack integrity because holding office does not come naturally to them. A weekly magazine once called a prime minister “the man who played prime minister”, because he came across as artificial and wooden in the role.138
The fit between a person and a position can vary not only from person to person but also from job to job. A good fit between one person and one job is no guarantee of a good fit for that person in other jobs, even in the same area. One mayor was praised as exemplary, as if the job were “made for him” and he was “born for” that role, fully embodying his position, but when he went into national politics, becoming a party leader, he was much criticized because the work did not sit naturally with him. He could not get a grip on the job. He was more an administrator than a politician, more of a connector than someone who could handle opposition, more of a manager than a leader. This made the position a struggle for him, as was painfully obvious to others. After two years he stepped down from his job and left national politics.139
A position must correspond with one’s own identity. There must be chemistry between the position and the person. So taking office is not only a matter of being capable and willing, but also of a good fit, and not only whether you think so yourself, but also whether others agree.
Ideally one should choose a job that fits. It is difficult when there is little or no choice, for instance in the case of an heir to the throne or someone asked to take office in the absence of more suitable candidates, where a position must be filled quickly. At the same time, as in the case of clothing, people can adjust to their work over time, improving the fit. You can grow into your role, as long as you are minded to do so.