What to Do When People Ask You to Lie
Defendant Don demanded
unquestioned obedience to his requests to subvert authorities. Business owners
can't afford to operate by that standard.
BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS@HOWARDTULLMAN1
As the Trump cesspool of
crime continues to swirl, widen and deepen, another group of poor, loyal
suckers who worked for Defendant Don at the Mar-il-Legal and at the White House
are now being drawn into the vortex of lies that surrounds the Orange Monster.
Many of Trump’s past and present attorneys are already seeing their careers
disintegrating. All six of his alleged co-conspirators in the latest indictment
are attorneys, including No. 1, Rudy Giuliani. They and the rest of the world
are watching their lives and futures (and possibly their freedom) being
sacrificed on the altar of Trump’s epic narcissism and delusions.
There are plenty
of lessons in this sad saga, but the most critical one is what to do -- or more
importantly not to do -- when you’re asked by your boss, your
peers or anyone else in your business, to lie. In addition to dozens of people
employed by Trump or working in the White House, Trump is also specifically
alleged to have asked election officials and others in Arizona and Georgia, not
to mention former vice president Mike Pence, to lie for him.
And, by lying, I
don’t merely mean overtly and directly telling lies. A half-truth is a whole
lie. Lying by omission, fake ignorance or turning a blind eye to illegal actions
and behaviors beyond the pale are equally criminal and repugnant. Hiding or
casually neglecting to produce inconvenient documents or, in the case of
Northwestern University, standing by and saying nothing as football hazing and
baseball abuse take place right before your eyes, is just as dishonest and
dishonorable as holding up a bank, burning critical documents in the White
House fireplaces, or flushing notes down the toilet. These people
are merely choosing the comfort of ignorance over the inconvenience of truth.
Silence is a tax on the
truth.
To be very clear, we’re
not talking here about vague matters of degree or simply shading the truth a
little bit as when the founders of Snapchat lied about the way their product actually worked.
This isn’t a case of situational ethics, which are bad enough to be
sure and a challenge for every entrepreneur. And, as sick and criminal as “fake it ‘til you make” has been shown to
be in the recent past, the present cases of lies and concealment are even
worse.
The poor, put-upon Trump
flunkies were allegedly instructed and directed by their “boss” to lie,
obstruct, and conceal books, records, classified documents, videos, and other
evidence, in the full knowledge that the materials were actively and
aggressively being sought by federal agents and the FBI. Suggestions of
criminal acts to be undertaken by Trump’s counsel were allegedly made slightly
more subtle and oblique, although the truth may be that the directions were far
more overt. Trump’s lawyers are now calling his vehement and violent directions
“aspirational” advice with a straight face. It was only the reticence and
restraint of the attorneys themselves in recording and documenting these
actions -- for their own illusory protection -- that have led us to believe
that these demands were more suggestive than deliberate, direct orders. Time
and tapes will tell.
On the other hand,
the one true thing that we’ve already seen is that people who will lie for you
will eventually lie to you. As the rats, enablers, co-conspirators, and counsel
rush to abandon the sinking Trump ship and make their own deals with the DOJ --
and the MAGA morons and sycophants in Congress continue to publicly support
Defendant Don’s growing craziness -- they all take the time to continually
reassure the Donald that they have his back. Only former White House
chief of staff Mark Meadows has apparently gone entirely radio silent in an obvious
bid to save his own skin, which seems to be working. But the knives are out,
the proffers are proliferating; they can’t wait to be rid of the cancer, if
they could only find the exits. Hopefully, one of the most well-deserved
punishments of Trump will be the liar’s curse: not that he won’t be
believed, but that he’ll never be able to believe anyone else.
Whatever the true
circumstances turn out to be in the Mar-a-Lago mess, the fact is that managers,
team members, outside partners, vendors, and professionals face similar
situations in their own businesses on a far too regular basis. Some of the very
unfortunate and last-lasting messages and scars of the Trump years are the
mistaken beliefs that lying is as common in D.C. as breathing, that everyone
cuts corners and shades the truth, and that only losers and suckers try to act
fairly and honestly.
So how do you protect
your business, your teams, and your clients and customers from thieves and
liars inside your own shop? Be honest with yourself and admit that, especially
in tough economic times, there are always far more reasons and excuses to lie
than to tell the truth. That’s not an explanation or justification, it’s just a
fact of human nature. There really are no good excuses, but they’re abundant,
nonetheless. Remember that it’s always easier to be wise for others than for
ourselves. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
First, have
clear written policies and communicate them consistently, but don’t think
for a minute that that’s sufficient to get the job done. Don’t worry or be
embarrassed because so much of what’s written will sound like cliches and
mission statement BS. Northwestern has had a wonderful anti-hazing policy for
more than 10 years and it did nothing to address or resolve the problems
they’ve had throughout their athletic department. You can’t legislate honesty.
You’ve got to make the right behaviors part and parcel of your company culture --
instilled in everyone from the day they start -- which you do through actions
and examples, not just talk.
Second,
acknowledge that it’s not ever easy to be the only one in a group who gets it. Plenty
of people always know what’s going on, but only a few are strong enough in the
face of opposition to stand up for the truth. It takes considerable courage to
be the one who says “no.” Speaking up and speaking out are tough, but these are
things that you do just as much for the business and the others you work with
as for yourself. In the end, it will turn out that, even if you’re the
first, eventually you won’t be alone. Relationships at work or anywhere else
aren’t supposed to be easy; they’re supposed to be honest. Being honest may not
get you a lot of friends, but it'll always get you the right ones.
Third, keeping
your mouth shut in the interest of keeping the peace isn’t being passive, it’s
being complicit. And it’s just as bad for the business as outright lying.
There aren’t degrees of the truth. Going along with the group, ignoring the
obvious, blaming the circumstances or the times, accepting half-truths and
rancid rationalizations and preferring to accept convenient and painless
fantasies rather than the thorny and difficult truth are short-term solutions.
Such cheap compromises are sure to return to bite you. In addition, they suck
all the joy out of the workplace and slowly impair the morale of your best
people. No one likes living a lie.
Finally, remember
that determining the whole truth isn’t always that easy, so before you step
forward and call anyone out, it’s critically important to do your homework. You
can’t take some of these things back once they’re out there. Make absolutely
sure you know what you’re talking about before you open your mouth. In some
cases, owners and managers don’t know the truth; in others, they can’t
acknowledge or face the truth; and then there are those who are lying to cover
up the truth.
Bottom line: It’s
as hard to tell the truth in some cases as it is to hide it, but if you tell
the truth, it becomes part of your past. If you lie, it becomes part of your
future. And if anyone asks you to lie, they couldn’t care less about you or
your future.