{"id":1452,"date":"2012-10-18T09:33:37","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T16:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=1452"},"modified":"2012-10-22T14:30:44","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T21:30:44","slug":"can-you-just-tell-little-business-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=1452","title":{"rendered":"Can you just tell little business lies?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe\u2019s not in right now.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI am going to the doctor at that time.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI paid only two dollars a unit to your competitor.\u201d\u00a0 Whether not true and used to avoid hurting someone\u2019s feelings, or whether used to gain an advantage in a negotiation, these little business lies are acceptable because they achieve their intended result without actually hurting the other party.\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n

Wrong – in the long run, even if apparently harmless at the moment. \u00a0One problem, as demonstrated in so many movie scripts, is that you sometimes need to tell another lie to cover the first, and then another. And small lies turn into habits. And habits define the individual and often the culture of the individual\u2019s direct world of influence.<\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here…]<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 What if you are never caught telling these little business lies? Is there any harm?\u00a0 Sometimes you will never know that you were caught. Someone sees you at another event when you told them you were out of town.\u00a0 Another asks his competitor if they really did sell to the company at such a low price. Someone you told was doing a superb job and was soon fired mentions the comment to his attorney or perhaps just as damning \u2013 to former peers still in the company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It takes only one instance of being caught to cause an entire group of people to question the truthfulness of all of your statements. And that is a large consequence to come from a small business lie.<\/p>\n

So, would you tell such white lies if you knew you\u2019d never be caught?\u00a0 Never?\u00a0 That depends upon how you chose to live with yourself. It certainly is difficult to be truthful or silent but never slip into little lies.<\/p>\n

For much of my adult life, I have been affiliated as an adult volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America, happily serving youth and adopting the Scout Law as an important part of my ethical being.\u00a0 Of the twelve points of that law, none state \u201cA Scout is truthful\u201d because there is a greater law in Scouting: \u201cA Scout is TRUSTWORTHY.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And that is the bottom line for all of us in business.\u00a0 We should strive to be TRUSTWORTHY in our actions and deeds.\u00a0 People can depend on us to be truthful and trusted. \u00a0\u00a0A simple lie, caught immediately or much later, belies that trust.<\/p>\n

Can you tell little business lies?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 But should you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe\u2019s not in right now.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI am going to the doctor at that time.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI paid only two dollars a unit to your competitor.\u201d\u00a0 Whether not true and used to avoid hurting someone\u2019s feelings, or whether used to gain an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-protecting-the-business","category-surrounding-yourself-with-talent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}