Truthfulness—Listening openly to the truth of others and refusing to compromise integrity or to deny universal truths—even when avoiding the truth might, on the face of it, especially in testing times, seem easier. We are suffering from truth decay. Corporate history is littered with the disasters of denial: boards who know in their hearts that it is time for a new CEO but are afraid speak their truth and so fudge the facts; salespeople who accept outrageously unrealistic quotas, but deny this truth and lie by accepting them; brokers who advise their clients to buy while they themselves are selling, physicians who withhold the truth from their patients, companies who know their products are defective, dangerous or damaging, but deny it and mislead regulators and the public; old story leaders who intend to limit the potential of an employee but promise unwarranted opportunities; executives who sand-bag their budgets and others who declare that their employees are their most important asset and then fire 500 of them. The strangest irony is that we have been teaching a myth about all this: the misguided notion that strong human relationships can be built on a flimsy footing of deceit. How can we build harmony, respect, integrity, honesty, inspiration, leadership or love on a foundation of lies? There is no logical argument that can support the idea that we can build consensus, community, ethics, teamwork, high performance, organizational and personal transformation, or outstanding customer service and quality without first building the necessary foundation of integrity on which to place them. Why do we expect to become Higher Ground Leaders from a base of dishonesty? After all, if we can’t even trust or tell the truth to each other, what are the grounds for expecting employees, customers or suppliers do any better? Walter Scott wrote, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:24:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015