How Others Decide If You Are an Honest Leader

Are you an honest leader? Dishonest behavior can be seen. When the car you parked in the lot suddenly is not there or your smartphone that you put under your chair is gone, someone has stolen from you. Most of us realize, however, that before the act of stealing a purse or car, or embezzling money happens, the dishonest person had developed thought patterns that led to this behavior.

Are there signals that a dishonest person emits that alert us to those inner tendencies that ultimately get expressed in a dishonest act? Yes, we’ve all heard comments about someone having “shifty eyes,” or they exhibit furtive looks to determine who’s watching them.

In reality, our research has determined that there are some specific behaviors commonly exhibited by others that are perceived to be tell-tale signals of dishonesty.

The Importance of an Honest Leader

Honesty is viewed as a highly critical trait for both managers and individual contributors. When asked to rate its importance compared to 19 other leadership competencies, it comes in as the sixth most important. For direct reports, it comes in as the third most important. In an analysis of 118,075 leaders, it is the highest rated of 19 leadership competencies. Leaders who are considered to have a fatal flaw in this competency (e.g., rated in the bottom 10%) have a score on honesty and integrity of 3.21.

A rating of 3 on our rating scale indicates that this person is “competent.”

However, being merely competent in honesty and integrity is a drastically negative indicator. Those rated at the 10^thpercentile have an overall leadership effectiveness rating at the 9^th percentile and are negatively evaluated on all 18 other competencies. Being rated as just “competent” on honesty and integrity has a drastically negative impact. But are all these leaders dishonest liars?

Some are, but most truly dishonest people are very good at hiding their lies. Turns out we make judgements of others based on a variety of behaviors that correlate with honesty. It’s these other behaviors that telegraph a person’s honesty and integrity. One might assume that in this group of leaders who have a fatal flaw in honesty and integrity there is one group of truly dishonest people and another group that have good intentions but do not perform well on the key indicators of honesty and integrity.

Indicators of Honest Behavior in Leaders

What are the key indicators of integrity in an honest leader? We did an analysis of the 57 behaviors with the strongest correlations to honesty and integrity. These results were based on global data from 118,034 leaders. Looking down through the top correlates, we found the top six themes.

1. Not following through on commitments. Imagine yourself walking down the hall of the office when a colleague asks you to send them a copy of a report you generated a week ago. You say, “No problem, I will send you the report.” You go back to your desk, open up the project you have been working on for a week, and by the end of the workday, you forget that promise to send your report to a colleague. However, your colleague always remembers that you promised to send a report and did not deliver on that commitment. Many people over-commit and under-deliver. They need to be more consistent about remembering all of their commitments. Because they do not have excellent relationships with their peers, they rarely get reminded of their commitments. What for you was only momentary forgetfulness is interpreted by another person as disrespect or intentionally not keeping your word.
2. Do others trust you to use good judgment when making decisions and do others trust you personally? 55% of the time people overrate how much they are trusted. Often, we assume that others trust our judgement and they personally trust us, but they don’t. If others do not trust you, they may question your honesty and integrity.
3. Willingness to go above and beyond and exceed expectations. Some people set limits and resist extra work or effort. Those who are willing to go above and beyond are perceived to have greater integrity and honesty. Those who set limits and resist cause others to question their commitment.
4. Being less cooperative with other groups and people. Resisting cooperation between other groups or people is a warning sign that you may lack honesty and integrity. Organizational conflict always creates significant problems and makes it difficult for people to work together. When most people experience conflict, they typically start to look for what caused it, and often, they can attribute it to broken promises, lack of trust, or conflicting goals. Leaders who try to cooperate and work together are viewed as having higher integrity and honesty.
5. Delaying important decisions. When critical decisions are delayed, people start to question the “real” reason for delays. Leaders need to communicate effectively when decisions are delayed, or others will start to question their motives.
6. Being out of touch with the issues and concerns of others. When leaders ignore the concerns and problems of others in the organization, their motives will always be questioned. Being uninformed about the difficulties and frustrations of others in the organization is never an acceptable excuse. Several years ago, one of the authors was working in Europe for two weeks and heard nothing about a tragic event involving one of our employees. On his first day back in the office, he started to question why an important project had not been completed. Several people pushed back, asking, “How can you be so insensitive?” After asking why they thought he was insensitive, he was given an update on what had happened. This experience reinforces the importance of being in touch with the issues and concerns of others.

What is clear when you go through the list of key indicators of honesty and integrity is that others can make attributions of your honesty and integrity from a variety of different behaviors. Keep in mind that all of these key indicators can work for you or against you with the perceptions of your honesty. In many ways, these indicators are easier to measure and evaluate than the extent to which you are truly honest. The perceptions of your behavior on these issues can significantly affect their belief in your honesty.

-Joe Folkman