Leading So People Will Follow

Even Little Lies Are Lies

For most of us, our non-truth-telling is less black-and-white than the example I just gave and less manipulative. We tell one person that we’re going to pursue his idea, and then tell the next person, with a completely different idea, that her idea is great and that we’re going to pursue it. Even when we know we can’t do both things or that the ideas are in fact contradictory, we tell ourselves it’s okay to act this way. Maybe we weren’t sure which way to go, or don’t want to disappoint either employee, or don’t want to cut off our options prematurely. Unfortunately, when we finally decide which way to go, the person whose idea we’re not using feels lied to.

In another common leadership situation, person A comes into ...