Simple flowchart: Should I lie? - No.

by Volker Weber

I know that it is common in today's business world to lie. There are many weasel words around it. "Misrepresenting the facts" is one of them. I call it a lie. And here is my piece of advice:

Do not lie to me. Ever.

There may be times when a lie seems to be the easy way out. But it's not. The problem is, I may catch you lying. And if that happens, all of the trust you have built over time is destroyed.

How did you earn this trust? You have been tested. I may ask you things that I know the answer to. And I will know that you told me the truth. Even if it was difficult. Time and again. I will tell you secrets that only you and I know. If you are trustworthy, I will never hear them again.

An uncomfortable truth will earn you respect. A lie will destroy it. I am not mad at you because you lied. I am mad because I can never trust you again.

Simple flowchart: "Should I lie?" - "No." - "But ..." - "NO!"

Comments

Well said.

Thomas Duff, 2014-12-10

There's a corollary to this: If you spin bad news into good news, and I find this out, I'm not going to believe the next good news you tell me.

Andrew Magerman, 2014-12-10

Something I want to share with my students. Thanks for sharing this.

Bruce Elgort, 2014-12-10

Beautifully put.

Stuart McIntyre, 2014-12-10

So is it! Thank you.

Torben Vendelev, 2014-12-10

Oh so true. And holds true in every type of relation...

Thomas Merchel, 2014-12-10

Wow, what happened?

Ingo Seifert, 2014-12-11

Hmmh. What could possibly ...

Volker Weber, 2014-12-11

Actually I disagree with the first sentence. It happens, but fortunately I don't experience it as common.

Martin Hiegl, 2014-12-12

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