Workplace Wisdom: CommunicationSample

 Workplace Wisdom:  Communication, Part I

Once, while working at a client’s office, I overheard the bookkeeper tell the business owner, Bob, that one of their vendors wanted to discuss their past due invoice. Bob said, “Tell him the check’s in the mail. That’ll buy us a couple of days.”

To Bob, this lie probably seemed like a necessity of survival, but to me, the bookkeeper, and eventually to the vendor, it was a lie that undermined Bob’s credibility from that point forward. In Bob's business, it also set the tone for lying to be acceptable for his entire staff!

Proverbs 21:6 teaches, “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.”

Leading with lies gives permission for all employees to lie. Truth is a better long-term communication strategy than lying.