Professionally Honest

Honesty is the best policy. Except when it comes to telling your boss you made a mistake, or telling your employee their insurance was delayed because of a clerical error. While this kind of white-lie fudging may seem like a harmless, great way to save face, dishonesty in the workplace (as in life) has an insidious way of still causing damage in unsuspected ways.

Honest Productivity   

If pure ethics doesn’t motivate you to be honest in the workplace, then at least consider that it makes your company–and you as an individual–more efficient.

When employees feel like they can admit mistakes openly and won’t be shamed, but rather listened to and helped, it will greatly increase productivity. Instead of an employee stressing about whether or not to confess an error, how to confess it—or worse, how to cover it up—that employee can save all that time by simply coming clean.

Leaders must cultivate a culture of open communication and transparency. When employees feel lied to, or like they are not privy to the whole picture, they become jaded and respond negatively.They will feel more inclined to take advantage of company time because they feel like the company takes advantage of them. When employees are more invested, they are more productive. When they feel mistreated and lied to, it is great incentive to undermine the company in many small, undetectable ways that hamper productivity and create a culture of suspicion and unnecessary stress.

Managers should seek to be understanding of mistakes, especially when employees freely admit to them. Depending on your company culture, there could be dozens of mistakes everyday that  the manager is not aware of because it is covered up or not self-reported. Blowing up at honest employees will not solve the error. Because errors are inevitable, will not discourage further mistakes, but rather encourage employees covering them up or straight-out lying about them.

When employees feel they can be honest with managers, managers get useful, unfiltered feedback which they can then utilize to design helpful training programs, HR policies, and even improve the camaraderie of the team or department.

Honest Leadership 

Being an honest leader is important for your integrity, reputation, and the respect of those you lead. Being caught in a lie undermines your credibility and is hard to recover from. People may then feel validated in reciprocating the dishonesty, following your bad example.

Additionally, being able to solicit and receive honest feedback is an unpleasant task, but one that is the mark of a good leader. You can train yourself to develop a thick-skin to be able to listen non-defensively to other’s candor.

When everything is “out in the open,” people spend less time wondering or stressing if something they are doing is wrong, of bad quality, or unnecessary. They will be able to simply ask, and then know they are receiving an honest opinion or feedback. Also, they can proceed confidently knowing that any perceived discrepancy will be pointed out to them.

Honest Transparency   

Explaining policy decisions to employees, even if you think it will not project the image you want, will make employees more satisfied. They won’t feel like they are helping to prop up your façade, or are complicit in your dishonesty to clients or customers.

Honesty does not have to mean being the Captain Obvious of your work space, or to be a knit-picker or the person who finds fault with everything. Using your emotional intelligence, you can mindfully gauge when being honest will help a situation.

You should always strive to be candid about your own mistakes, especially when asked. Admitting fault and asking for feedback are the marks of a leader with integrity as well as someone striving to develop high emotional intelligence.

Companies should always strive to be more open and transparent, and also use a degree of empathy to acknowledge the human factor of their business.  Honesty is difficult, can feel embarrassing, offensive, and at times even hostile. The more we get comfortable with facing the reality of other’s perceptions, our own mistakes, and strengths, the more successful and happy our workplaces will be.

There are business tools you can use to increase transparency and shared understanding within your organization and beyond. CabuzMeetings is a tool designed for just such a purpose. Create meeting minutes that are shared with all participants, as well as action steps that are assigned to individuals making tasks clear, accountable, and transparent.