{"id":2926,"date":"2012-02-10T09:49:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T14:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2017-11-19T22:39:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T03:39:01","slug":"how-truthful-are-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/how-truthful-are-you\/","title":{"rendered":"How Truthful Are You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years ago at a consulting gig I was participating in a telephone meeting. I had one other person in the room with me, and had only known her a couple of weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n
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During the meeting, someone asked me a question about something that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember doing, so I answered that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. After the meeting, this same person and I were talking about something else, and she said that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never met anyone like me. When I asked what she meant, she said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because you said \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just give an answer you knew might be wrong.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I thought about that at the time, then later on. An issue many workers say they have with management is that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust them to tell the truth about almost anything. Workers feel that managers are always hiding something, and looking for ways to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stick it to\u00e2\u20ac\u009d them.<\/p>\n

It's an interesting belief, and I have to admit that I know many managers who really are out to \"get\" an employee for whatever reason. Sometimes an employee makes a manager look bad, intentionally or not. However, we're on a different quest right now; can people trust their leaders to be honest with them?<\/p>\n

When it comes to not being truthful, I think employees might have a point, to a degree. As managers or employers, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel as though we need to tell everything we know to employees, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re probably accurate. Sometimes there are very good reasons not to tell something, at least for a period of time. <\/p>\n

I remember back many years ago when my organization was contemplating layoffs. Employees weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stupid, as they kept hearing how bad our financial performance had been for an extended period of time, and it was a question I had to field daily. I knew there were layoffs coming, though I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how many, or where, at least up until the day before. In times like that, you have to realize that your allegiance is to your peers, whether you agree with everything or not. <\/p>\n

In the book Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind<\/a>\"icon\" (the link with the light blue line denotes an affiliate link if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to check out the book<\/em>) by T. Harv Eker, he tells a tale of a plumber who happens to be a millionaire quite a few times over. This plumber has a few employees, none of whom know that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a millionaire. He purchases uniforms for everyone with his company logo on it, and wears the same uniform. He speaks just like they do, does the same things they do, and drives a regular car just like them. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t join a country club, go to fancy restaurants, or have a house screaming of opulence. When asked about this, he states \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If my employees knew we were making that kind of money, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d not only want big raises, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably lose most of them because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d go out and start their own businesses.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like to subscribe to the theory that I ever withheld information because it was in the best interest of my employees. Within my department at large, as long as it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t personal information they wanted from me about me or anyone else, anything someone asked was answered as thoroughly as I could answer. I never worried that someone might know so much that they would end up taking my job; who really has time for that kind of thinking? <\/p>\n

I told my department what our performance numbers were and how we got there. I told them when they did well, and I told them when they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. I told them when I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do well, but not as often when I did well. I told them when contracts with clients or payers weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t proper, and I told them when other departments were making our jobs tougher to do. <\/p>\n

When they saw bad performance in another employee and wanted to know what I was going to do about it, I would tell them that it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any of their business, unless they wanted me to tell everyone when I might have to discipline them. When they thought I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being consistent, I would point out things they themselves had done, and how I had treated them during those times; many times, they had no idea I even knew about those situations. <\/p>\n

Why do some managers or employers lie, or not be as truthful as they should be, other than situations I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mentioned above? There are really only two reasons for deliberate diversion. <\/p>\n

One, because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to admit it. Two, because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to share their knowledge with someone else, thinking that withholding information is job security<\/a>. <\/p>\n

When it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first, the person should be ashamed of themselves, and should do whatever they can to try to learn whatever it is they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. When it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the second, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sadly mistaken; withholding information means your employees aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as efficient and as educated as they should be, and if those above you are sharp, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find yourself out the door for improper training processes.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always believed that you get what you give. People often know when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re lying to them, especially if they see you on a daily basis. If you show that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust your employees, they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust you, and they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work hard for you. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never own up to making any errors, and if they discover something that could jeopardize the operation, they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you, because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll feel that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll either find a way to condemn them, as in blaming the messenger, or fix the problem and take full credit for it. <\/p>\n

There are extraneous situations where you may not be able to be as forthcoming as possible, and if you explain yourself when those things come to light, all will be forgiven. The day the company I was working for at the time had layoffs, I met with every person in my department, none of whom were laid off, and told them what I knew, when I knew it, and why I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say anything about it until that moment. They all understood, and were all thankful that none of them had been relieved of their jobs. <\/p>\n

If any of them had to go, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have handled it exactly the same way. These people went to great lengths to make me look good; I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have wanted to give them anything less than they absolutely deserved.<\/p>\n

The next time you go to work, think about what you might not be telling your employees that they may have the right to know, and share it with them. You may be surprised to find that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll actually be more helpful and supportive in the future.
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Years ago at a consulting gig I was participating in a telephone meeting. I had one other person in the room with me, and had only known her a couple of weeks. During the meeting, someone asked me a question about something that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember doing, so I answered that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[994,30,992],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","tag-being-truthful","tag-leadership","tag-working-with-employees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}