Workplace Calisthenics: Truth is cheaper for your business in long run

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Want to annihilate your competition? Kill them by just telling the truth!|ret||ret||tab|

I am convinced that the good people of southwest Missouri will trip all over their Birkenstocks to beat a path to your door if you just tell them the truth. If you haven't noticed, the truth has been in short supply in the news lately.|ret||ret||tab|

The tragedy, which silently unfolded in the gray depths of the Barents Sea, was made even more devastating with the admission that the Russian government, for four days, had been lying.|ret||ret||tab|

We have found out that Ford Motor Company may have been lying about the correct air pressure for Firestone tires. Some hospitals have been lying to Medicare about services not rendered. Big oil companies may have been lying about OPEC as the reason for pumping up gasoline prices 100 percent in four months. Tiger Woods (my hero) lied about the golf balls he recommends (he doesn't really use them himself). And airlines lie to me all the time about flights cancelled for "mechanical reasons."|ret||ret||tab|

There is a rancid, metastasizing suspicion filtering into our dealings with each other resulting in massive outbreaks of mistrust.|ret||ret||tab|

I find myself hunkering down and questioning every business transaction. |ret||ret||tab|

Each month I spend hours scouring every expense on my credit card bills. In the past three months I have found two instances of hotels double billing for the same room on the same date. There was an airline that charged me for a cancelled flight and a rental car company who billed me for a tank of gas even though I returned it with the gauge broadcasting "full."|ret||ret||tab|

So, here it is the ultimate competitive edge in this economy tell your customers the truth!|ret||ret||tab|

In my training programs I will often throw on the screen a slide that reads, "It is never appropriate to lie." Without exception I always get participants who roll their eyes or slowly shake their heads.|ret||ret||tab|

I'm finding that what I thought was a basic "cast in concrete" assumption about human ethics is a slippery, situational slope that has few boundaries.|ret||ret||tab|

The rules change with the setting. It is OK to tell the truth unless you are filling out your IRS return because the government "owes you." You should never lie unless you are kissing up to your boss. The truth is always preferable until you have the potential of losing money.|ret||ret||tab|

I do not trust people who move around the boundaries to meet their own needs. I choose not to do business with people who practice situational ethics.|ret||ret||tab|

Maybe this is handholding, Sunday school thinking, but I also believe it is smart business.|ret||ret||tab|

First, if you never lie to your customers, plan on saving a semi tractor-trailer load of advertising dollars.|ret||ret||tab|

In customer service there is something called the "3-11 Rule." It means for every satisfied customer, he or she will tell three other people; for every dissatisfied customer, he or she will tell 11 other people.|ret||ret||tab|

Second, if you tell the truth, plan on reducing the turnover in your staff. I have found that human beings will actually turn down more money in a new workplace somewhere else if they believe that their present employer is "ethical."|ret||ret||tab|

Third, telling the truth resolves conflict quickly. If you deal with your employees and customers using a positive assertion, plan on spending more time actually doing the work and less time beating each other up.|ret||ret||tab|

Finally, if you look me straight in the eye and tell me what I may not want to hear, because it is the truth, I will show up again even though I did not get what I wanted. |ret||ret||tab|

I recently helped one of my daughters buy a new vehicle. In the negotiation I said to the salesperson, "I know you get three percent of the invoice on this vehicle at the end of the year." The person responded, "You are wrong, that is not true." |ret||ret||tab|

I called the car company and my research was true. Guess where I will never shop for a car again? And that is the truth.|ret||ret||tab|

(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, The Executive Edge, can be contacted via the Business Journal at sbj@sbj.net.)[[In-content Ad]]