One of my favorite podcasts these days is one called “Acquired.” I started listening to Acquired back in May of this year after reading an article about it in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “The Smartest People in the Room Are All Listening to the Same Podcast.” In each episode, Acquired’s co-hosts, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, take you on a journey through the backstories of well-known companies and brands. The episodes are long (a nominal company deep-dive is 3 to 5 hours), but compelling and highly instructive on how the best companies evolved and compete. For instance, the latest episode on IKEA gave me some great insights into my area of operations and supply chain management, in addition to telling a fascinating story of the company’s founding and evolution. While I recommend Acquired to all of you, it is its theme song that opens every episode that inspired my column today.
The theme song is entitled, “Who Got the Truth?” Its music and lyrics are by Yung Spielburg and performed by Mike Taylor. While I imagine Gilbert and Rosenthal chose this song to indicate that they are providing the true, detailed story of each of these companies, it struck a different chord (pun intended) with me. The song begins with (and often repeats) the lyric: “Who Got the Truth? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you?” Every time I hear that lyric, it reminds me of how important the truth is in business (and all aspects of our lives). Unfortunately, I have encountered numerous people in my career who could not answer those lyrical questions affirmatively. In today’s column, I would like to address the importance of honesty and integrity in the workplace and how the lack of those characteristics undermines organizations.
Probably the most important reason for honesty in both business and life is that it builds trust. In the business world, you need to build trust with all your constituencies: your supervisors, your employees, your customers, and your supply chain partners. Once that trust is breached, it is impossible to recover. If you lie to those you work for or those who work for you, it is unlikely that those relationships can last. Once trust is undermined, the damage has been done. You have probably lost that employee or customer, as they will find it untenable to work with you. I have both experienced this and observed this in organizations, leading me to pursue other opportunities rather than attempting to deal with those who could not be trusted. Practically speaking, honesty and its inherent building of trust will typically lead to higher employee and customer loyalty and retention.
Pervasive honesty and transparency will also improve the culture of your organization. Employees will be more likely to take on more responsibility and be accountable for their actions. Such a culture will likely be more collaborative as everyone in the organization will be more comfortable and positive. In addition, communication will be easier in such an environment. If everyone is open and truthful, people will be more likely to share information, resulting in more effectiveness and efficiency in the workplace.
Many of the readers of the Augusta Business Daily are either current business/organizational leaders or aspire to be such leaders in the future. It is impossible to lead without honesty and integrity. While we all have examples of leaders who were dishonest and/or unethical, we also know that their shelf lives are short. Although they may seem successful in the short term, it is rare that anyone will follow them for any significant length of time. Building a reputation for honesty, dependability, and trustworthiness will enable you to lead for an extended period.
Looking back over forty years in the workplace, I have always found that “honesty is the best policy.” Such honesty engenders trust which ultimately leads to the following benefits:
- Higher retention levels of employees
- Enduring customer loyalty
- Productive partnerships with suppliers and distributors
- Highly collaborative and communicative workplaces
- Strong workplace culture
- Successful leadership.
When you are asked, “Who Got the Truth…Is it you?” I hope your answer will be yes. I know you will be happy with the res
