Leadership and Honesty

What value does a thought have, apart from the truth it contains or seeks after? – Andre Comte-Sponville

 

What attribute do people look for most in a leader? Competence? Charisma? Intelligence? Research done by the University of California is confirmed in my own surveys as I asked the question to many different groups in SA companies. Top of the list is honesty. Amazing isn’t it? What has honesty to do with being a good leader? It is fundamental! When a group of people get lost somewhere in the bush and they are looking for a leader to lead them back to safety there could be a number of volunteers for the role. ‘Know-how’ will obviously be key. All the volunteers would however claim that they have the ‘know-how’. But who can I believe? Who can I trust? Who do I know is honest with him/herself and honest with others? Who lives with integrity?

 

We live in a world full of deceit, pretense, so-called ‘white lies’ and dubiousness. In our daily interactions people say things and promise things. We hear but we have learnt to believe only what we see – we’ve become cynical of what people say. In our cities we can, for a large part, live anonymously. We can get away with being dishonest. Where previously in smaller, closer and more homogeneous communities we were held accountable for what we say, today we don’t expect to be held accountable and we have given up on trying to hold others accountable (try holding a call centre consultant accountable for his/her promises). It is a sign of our times that we almost desperately look for leaders whom we can trust; leaders who talk and act in good faith. Good faith goes beyond sincerity. Sincerity means not lying to others; good faith means lying neither to others nor to oneself. Lying or not lying to oneself is the ultimate test of moral character and moral character is essential to leadership influence. Can we ever get it perfect? Not in this life but we can make it our goal and strive to do better.

 

When, in what situations, do you feel tempted to lie? I cannot think of an exception to the ‘rule’ that one feels tempted when, in some or other way, one feels that telling the truth could directly or indirectly harm oneself. It could be harmful in material terms, or in terms of our comfort, or it could be harmful in terms of loss of respect, esteem or admiration. It relates to selfish or ego needs. (I guess lying over time can become such a habit that people can lie for the sake of lying – not really knowing anymore why they feel compelled to lie). Comte-Sponville explains good faith or truthfulness as loving truth more than oneself. That is a tall order! Ultimately I feel I must be able to see that holding on to and living by the truth, even though it could have temporary negative implications for myself, will in the end be for my own good. If God is your truth then acting in good faith (being truthful) means loving God more than you love yourself. Since God loves us, I can feel secure in the knowledge that living the truth will take me to what is good and eternal. There is then no need to deceive, no need to pretend or twist the facts. To be honest though, we have to admit that as human beings we struggle every day to get it right.  

 

‘Must we therefore always speak our hearts, give voice to every thought and every feeling? No, because we cannot. There is too little time, and decency and gentleness forbid it. Sincerity is not exhibition­ism; it is not tactlessness. One has the right to remain silent and indeed quite often one must. Good faith forbids not silence but deception ...’  (Comte-Sponville). As a leader one is often confronted with a situation where telling the truth blatantly could have disastrous results for people and/or for the cause of the organisation. As much as a leader has to be truthful, he/she also has to lead with discernment. It is the combination of the two that earns trust and respect. A truthful person then is someone who loves truth and consequently refuses to lie, whether by over­statement or understatement, fabrication or omission. As Comte-Sponville says, better a true sadness than a false joy.

 

The quality of our thoughts determine the quality of our lives and our leadership. As leaders we have strategic thoughts, analytical and problem solving thoughts, innovative and opportunistic thoughts, and many other kinds of thoughts. As we think, reflect, prepare, make our plans or even construct our responses in conversations, it will do us good to keep the question in mind: What value does a thought have, apart from the truth it contains or seeks after?   

 

I trust you will enjoy a wonderful spring!

 

Gerhard