Picture the scene. Somebody rings you, asking about an email that they've sent you. They still haven't received a reply from you.
Basically, it's that one person you have forgotten to get back to. The sweaty palms and nervous gulping begins...
And then suddenly, brainwave!
'Email? What email? -uh, no I never received that email.'
Complete denial of receiving the email in question has got you out of trouble, even though the person on the other end of the phone knows perfectly well that you are lying as they have probably done the same to their manager only 15 minutes previously. BUT they can't say that you are lying, as that would be professionally unacceptable-wouldn't it?
What would have happened if you'd have said 'I completely forgot to get back to you'-would you have looked lazy? Stupid? Unprofessional? Well, in all honesty, probably. But does lying, when it's so blatantly obvious, make you look any better?
There are many people who would say yes. Lucy Kellaway, who is a columnist for the Financial Times says that she doesn't believe the corporate world would work without lying. A lot of us may not want to admit we lie, but the odds are we all tell little white lies every day. Complimenting our manager's tie for example, even when it looks like something that should be tethering a llama to a post and not being displayed proudly around their necks. Saying that a cup of coffee kindly made for you was 'just what you needed' when you have poured it away down the sink (where that watery mud clearly belonged), not 20 seconds before. Telling a client that there is nothing to worry about when all around you, staff are running around screaming with their arms in the air whilst one poor fellow twitches helplessly on the floor.
So I suppose the real question is: Is lying a necessity to success in business or are we just too scared to admit the truth?
-Emily
Picture credit: How to guides 365
I know as an account manager how useful a white lie can be; "Order form? Oh yes, that was passed to provision yesterday..." However, when you are speaking to the same people day in and day out it becomes important to try honesty when a lie would seem like a cheap escape route; trading off competency for integrity. This is because when a relationshipn builds I think people understand that things are forgotten and service can lapse. What really makes a great service to a customer is how this reacted to and is recovered from.
Still, that being said, I'll still keep on complementing my manager's tie....
Posted by: Noah | January 28, 2011 at 13:08