Be a Strong Leader like Michelle Obama and Star Trek's Captain Kathryn Janeway

One step to developing integrity is to study men and women of great character. Taking a page from the book of Brian Tracy, a leading authority on personal and business success, study the lives and stories of people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Mohandas Gandhi, Rev., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Study the people whose strength of character enabled them to change their world. Such is the case with two women of the present day, one very real - Michelle Obama, the other a fictionalized creation of moral fiber - Star Trek Captain Kathryn Janeway.

Finding two female leaders governed by directional guidelines and a strong sense of selfless community convictions is curious and then using them as a guideline of moral character or integrity is more suspect. Add into the mix a First Lady and a fictionalized Star Trek Captain and now you've got quite an original comparative. I choose these two individuals despite the fact that one is fictionalized (Star Trek Captain Kathryn Janeway in case you're not a Star Trek fan), because both are women of accomplished firsts and examples of integrity that carry a rather large following. The lifestyle and merit they represent is worth examining.

The qualifying comparative is integrity. Why integrity? Tracy explains quite well that integrity is a value, like persistence, courage and industriousness. Even more than that, it is the value that guarantees all the other values. You are a good person to the degree to which you live your life consistent with the highest values that you espouse. Integrity is the quality that locks in your values and causes you to live consistent with them.

The present First Lady, Michelle Obama began her life of firsts as an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin, where she first met her future first husband, President Barack Obama. Subsequently, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. Captain Kathryn Janeway is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise, but as the captain of the Starfleet starship USS Voyager, she was the lead character on the television series Star Trek Voyager, and later, a Starfleet admiral, as seen in the 2002 feature film Star Trek Nemesis. She is the first, and to date, the only female captain to be the lead character in a Star Trek series.

The White House reports that Michelle joined the University of Chicago with a vision of bringing campus and community together. As associate dean of student services, she developed the university's first community service program, and under her leadership as vice president of community and external affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center, volunteerism skyrocketed. She continued to hold the University of Chicago Hospitals position during the primary presidential campaign of Barack Obama, but cut back to part time in order to spend time with her daughters as well as work for her husband's election.

Michelle is a valued mother of two young ladies named Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7, as well as an Illinois State Bar member and the First Lady of the United States. Throughout the campaign, the media often labeled Michelle as an "angry black woman," and some Web sites attempted to propagate this image, prompting her to respond with integrity: "Barack and I have been in the public eye for many years now, and we've developed a thick skin along the way. When you're out campaigning, there will always be criticism. I just take it in stride, and at the end of the day, I know that it comes with the territory."

More proof of integrity backing the fictionalized character of Captain Janeway comes to light in her character who takes on a lead role to command a merged crew as well as the chances she takes to develop character in staffing her crew. She granted a convicted criminal, former Starfleet officer, and accomplished pilot Tom Paris a field commission, and made him Voyager's helmsman. His record of seven years of devoted service to her crew, proved her choice to be of good merit. Janeway also merged together two unlikely crews, one renegade (the Maquis) and one all military (the Voyager crew).

Janeway's decision to protect an intelligent species (the Ocampa) causes her to order the destruction of the device that could have returned both crews to Earth. This Caretaker's device pulled the Maquis ship as well as the Voyager vessel well over 75,000 light-years (pretty much analogous to years needed to travel back to Earth) away from Earth. Janeway instead chooses to prevent the Ocampa from being destroyed by the gang-like Kazon-Ogla, by blowing up the device. She makes this sacrifice as captain to carry out the guiding principles of life preservation for a destructively vulnerable species.

Integrity also denotes excellence, such was the case with Michelle Obama's keynote address that as largely well received and drew mostly positive reviews. Regardless of your political views, a Rasmussen Reports poll found that her favorability among Americans reached 55%. Obama talked about her belief in the American dream: "that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, and you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them."

With the ascent of her husband as a prominent national politician, Michelle Obama has become a part of popular culture. Many sources have speculated that, as a high-profile African-American woman in a stable marriage, she will be a positive role model who will influence the view the world has of African-Americans. Michelle appeared on the cover and in a photo spread in the March 2009 issue of Vogue. Every First Lady since Lou Hoover (except Bess Truman) has been in Vogue, but only Hillary Clinton had previously appeared on the cover.

Janeway's excellence can be measured by her character's success in helping an ex-Borg, Seven of Nine reclaim her individuality and humanity and advocates for the Emergency Medical Hologram's (otherwise known as the Doctor's) status as a sentient being. All of these characters find their integrity and excellence thanks to Captain Janeway and she finds a way to get her crew home in seven years instead of the forecasted seventy plus.

To summarize, both of these character's First Lady Michelle Obama and Star Trek Captain Kathryn Janeway exemplify the foundations of character. Character development is one of the most important activities one can engage in, thus, working on character means disciplining your character to do more and more of those things that a thoroughly honest person would do, under all circumstances.

Tracy goes on to explain: to be impeccably honest with others, one must first be impeccably honest with themselves. One must be true to themselves. In fact, you must be true to the very best that is in you, to the very best that you know. Only a person who is living consistent with his or her highest values and virtues is really living a life of integrity. Such is the case with First Lady Michelle Obama and Star Trek's Captain Janeway. Both committed to living this kind of life, you will find they are continually raising their own standards, and continually refining their definition of integrity and honesty. They continue to symbolize integrity and excellence.

You can tell how high your level of integrity is by simply looking at the things you do in your day-to-day life. The external manifestation of high integrity is high-quality work. A person who is totally honest with himself or herself will be someone who does, or strives to do, excellent work on every occasion. The totally honest person recognizes, sometimes unconsciously, that everything he or she does is a statement about who he or she really is as a person.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Guard your integrity as a sacred thing." Likewise, integrity is the number one quality of leadership. Integrity in leadership is expressed in terms of constancy and consistency. It is manifested in an absolute devotion to keeping one's word. The glue that holds all relationships together-including the relationship between the leader and the led-is trust, and trust is based on integrity; more vital substantiation of integrity by Tracy.