Minute Mindset

One of the most valuable lessons I learned while I was working as a counselor was most people want honesty as long as it is not honest. As much as people say they want you to be truthful with them, most cannot handle the truth.

This is even true in the business environment. When I go inside a company to work, I search for three things:

• Is there clear communication among all the people?
• Are people honest about what is happening?
• Is there trust among all levels of people?

If you look at these, they go together — don’t they? You will never have clear communication without people trusting each other. If there is no trust, there sure won’t be honesty. Without the honesty, things can’t improve. When you can’t honestly deal with issues, they don’t go away. They just hang around and fester until they become an emotional issue so large they explode as a wild fire.

So, here is a question for you: Do you want your people to always be honest with you?...