Embracing Truthfulness for Better Work Life (and Life in General!)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Shane Elmore for writing today's blog post. Shane served as Pulsara's Vice President for Clinical Innovation and Development from 2013-2022. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. 

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I have a friend who once found himself in a very tricky and uncomfortable situation at work. He had knowledge that his direct supervisor was stealing inventory. He saw this happen with his own eyes, and it ate away at him. But Corey knew that saying something could get him in hot water … possibly even fired. Corey learned the hard way that knowing the truth unfortunately can set you free ... he eventually spoke up and was fired.

Fortunately, many companies (the ones with good leadership, anyway) have measures in place to prevent employees from feeling like they can't say anything bad about their supervisors for fear of losing their jobs. What would your workplace look like if the truth was put in its proper place? We live in a time when trust is at an all time low (in my opinion) and we almost expect that people aren’t telling us the truth. I learned this the hard way when I moved from nursing (where my patients whole-heartedly trusted me) at the bedside to the sales world. I was amazed at how many people dismissed what I said because I was selling something. I know not to take this sort of thing personally - after all it’s experience that has taught them to think this way. 

Regardless of where you work and what your role is, you can set a high priority for the truth. At Pulsara, we value truth & integrity and that starts with the individuals. Here are 5 tips to help you embrace the truth.

1. We have nothing to fear from the truth. When you have the courage to speak and share the truth it’s amazing how fear loses its grip on you.
2. Create an environment in which no one has the right to hold a critical opinion without speaking up about it. The popular thing to do is withhold your critical opinion and then play the game of "I told you so" when things don’t work out. This is a sure recipe for failure. The critical opinion that you share could be the key to success and your team/company needs you to be forthcoming about it. 
3. Have integrity and demand it from others. Here are a couple of ways to put this into practice:
   •  Never say anything about a person you wouldn't say to them directly and never try someone without accusing them to their face.
   • Never let loyalty stand in the way of truth and openness.
4. Be radically transparent. This is something that our CEO at Pulsara always practices without fail. “I'm sharing things that most CEOs wouldn't think of sharing.” If I’ve heard him say that once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. When my leader has that mentality, I have no choice but to do the same.
5. Don’t tolerate dishonesty.  When people are dishonest with you it causes major problems. Even when it’s a small white lie. When someone lies about something and you know it, you usually find that it’s hard to trust anything they say thereafter. When someone is being dishonest, confront them immediately. If, on the other hand, you are the one who’s been dishonest for some reason, you need to disclose the truth immediately … see rule number 1. I have found that it’s always better to come clean than it is to be caught in a lie.

For more reading on this topic, check out a great book by Stephen Covey called the Speed of Trust.