My work on leadership values continues, and on Saturday, whilst ploughing through my ironing, and listening to one of my books, ‘The Seeds of Greatness’ by Denis Waitley (mainly to take my mind off the monotony of pressing bedding), I suddenly stopped mid-steam, and rewound the previous 60 seconds of wisdom. I listened intently to his description of honesty, as part of his integrity triangle (which I share below). He implied that there was indeed a cause and effect for this specific leadership core value. Of course, I have also concluded that if there is cause and effect for integrity, then the other core values should also have a similar pattern that can also be modelled. So, I am off to study and define each for you, and I have called it ‘The Cause-and-Effect of Leadership’ – natty title eh? Well, it nods to my engineering background and made me smile with curious creativity too!
Waitley’s trinity model suggests that the values of Truth, Honesty and Trust work in harmony to create Integrity, and I have then concluded that the effect or consequence on others (receivers) must be respect as shown. Allow me to explain…
An organisation, that demonstrates integrity, is one that tells the truth, is honest in its dealings, and trusts that people and practices will be set up to ‘do the right thing’. The outcome or consequence is a respected reputation and brand. The same can be true for leaders – tell the truth, be honest in your dealings and interactions, and trust yourself, trust others and be trustworthy, to demonstrate integrity. The outcome is respect, and a trusted reputation.
How easy is it to be consistent with all three to uphold integrity?
I remember becoming incensed as I watched one of our senior politicians say, “I have been as honest as I can be.” When responding to Press interrogation about his expenses claim debacle. I shouted at the TV, “Honesty is binary love! You either told lies or you didn’t!” Which made me seek to understand the definitions and differences between ‘truth’ and ‘honesty’.
- Truth – is about things – facts, evidence, accuracy about a thing or situation,
- Honesty – is about people and behavioural character – honesty is a refusal to tell lies.
However, we don’t always want to tell the truth do we, as that can hurt? Therefore, we must always be honest, but maybe we do not divulge the whole truth and fact of a matter? For example, in Vibeke Norgaard Martin and Matthew Frederick’s Book 101 Things I learned in Law School (ISBN-13 978-1524762025, Ballantine Books Inc., 2019), they state:
Lawyers must be honest, but they don’t have to be truthful. Honesty and truthfulness are not the same thing. Being honest means not telling lies. Being truthful means actively making known all the full truth of a matter. Lawyers must be honest, but they do not have to be truthful. A criminal defence lawyer, for example, in zealously defending a client, has no obligation to actively present the truth. Counsel may not deliberately mislead the court, but has no obligation to tell the defendant’s whole story.
This is interesting, in a situation where the convicted must swear on a book to tell the truth, the whole truth…etc.
As leaders, are we faced with situations that call for our honesty, and yet not to be completely truthful?
As an Executive Coach, I face this client-presented dilemma often. For example, the need to be honest about forthcoming redundancies, and yet the need to not share all the truth about the specific market performance and ongoing cost-cutting needs.
Leaders must therefore commit to honesty – that is just a choice: there are no grey areas, you are either honest or you’re not. You don’t need training or coaching for that binary choice.
Work with your coach and mentors to develop the other two:
- Develop your wisdom, discernment, sincerity, judgement, and accountability in service to truth.
- For trust, you must invest in your empathy – emotional intelligence, authenticity, honour of others, effective communication, and discretion. Trust, according to Professor France Frei at Harvard Business School, is made up of three things (another triangle) Authenticity, Empathy and Logic – honesty, empathy, and truth in my model. So, work on Empathy with your coach.
It is by combining the three values of Integrity that leads to the effect of respect, reputation and brand advocacy. These are the responsibilities and accountabilities of leadership.
These are one of the Cause-and-Effect Laws of Leadership…
… and the ironing? All done. I shall therefore begin by exploring the next core value of Freedom.