By the time this issue of Leadership Wired is published, Harry Stonecipher's forced resignation from Boeing will be old news. But it bears mentioning here because it illustrates an important leadership principle: if you want to be a credible, effective leader, you cannot compartmentalize your integrity.

Stonecipher, a 68-year-old husband, father and grandfather, came out of retirement in December 2003 to help revitalize Boeing after Pentagon contract scandals that sent two of the company's executives to prison. According to an article in USA Today, one of Stonecipher's top priorities as president and CEO of the aerospace giant was the "restoration of corporate ethics."

His efforts apparently were paying off: the company's market valuation had climbed 50 percent during his 15 months in the top job. Then, in early March, he was fired because he was having an extramarital affair with a female Boeing executive.

In the aftermath of Stonecipher's ouster, some analysts questioned whether his punishment was too harsh, while others lauded the swift action of Boeing's board of directors.

"There is a lot of talk about tone at the top," Nell Minow of The Corporate Library told USA Today. "This is exactly what it means. The CEO's personal integrity has to be unquestionable or he cannot have the leadership ability to do his job."

Experts say Boeing's recent history of corporate scandal likely influenced the board's decision to respond so definitively to Stonecipher's indiscretions. Whatever their reasoning, however, the fact remains that, if personal integrity had been as important to Stonecipher as corporate ethics, he would still be leading Boeing today.

As USA Today so aptly stated, "In the end, Harry Stonecipher failed to practice what he preached."

This article is published by Leadership Wired which is owned by John Maxwell.