The Truth

 Tell the truth. Mothers and Fathers have said this for centuries

And it is a really important thing to learn and to follow. When you lose someone’s trust, you have lost everything! If people don’t trust you, your leadership position is lost.

Understanding and practicing good values is very important for your reputation and for your results.

Honesty:  We deal with each other in a sincere and straightforward manner.
Integrity:  We act in a manner consistent with our words and beliefs.
Respect:  We treat others with care and consideration.
Courage:  We pursue our beliefs with strength and perseverance.
Openness:  We share information freely.
Diversity:  We seek, value, and respect differences among our fellow employees and customers.
Balance:  We strive for stability and in our personal and professional lives.

As you can see from the list above, Telling the Truth has lots of variations on how it can be perceived.  Telling the truth deals with, of course, just plain telling the truth.  That means not stopping short and leaving something out.  Not telling the whole story is lying.  The way we act in front of everyone deals with a form of telling the truth or not telling the truth.  If you are a different person in front of your direct reports than you are in front of your boss, then you are not telling the truth.  If you do not treat others with respect and talk behind their backs, you are not telling the truth (unless you are saying nice things about them behind their back).

Courage deals with telling the truth.  Openness deals with telling the truth.  Keeping information to yourself is not telling the truth (keeping confidential information confidential is telling the truth).  Saying one thing about how you feel about diversity and acting the opposite way is not telling the truth.  Saying you want balance in your life and then doing nothing about it is not telling yourself the truth.  Blaming others is a form of not telling the truth.  Manipulating someone is a form of not telling the truth.  Misleading someone is a form of not telling the truth.

As you can see, there are many ways to think about telling the truth. “When you tell the truth you don’t have to remember what you said.“ . . . So Tell the Truth!  

Have a good weekend everyone….Lee