Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Honesty”
Truth matters and its your moral responsibility to find it. Trustworthiness matters and its your moral duty to insist on it. Never in my lifetime has truth been more important or more illusive. Though hard to find, within every mountain of careless claims, unsubstantiated assertions, fallacious reasoning and outright lies there are true facts and credible sources. It is your …
Sarah’s mom agreed to let her 16-year-old go to a party if she promised to be home by midnight. But as the Cinderella hour approached, Sarah did a quick risk/reward calculation. She knew her mom would be angry and probably ground her, but she was having so much fun she decided it was worth it. Sure enough, when she got …
There’s no doubt about it: Trust is an asset to any relationship and distrust an enormous liability. But thinking of trust in terms of its practical value can demean and distort its true significance as an endorsement of our character and as a sign of our worthiness. I get my clearest vote of trust when I stop to appreciate the …
What are the qualities that generate trust? I’m talking about being trustworthy, not trusting others. There’s a relationship between the two concepts, but a decision to trust another is a choice, not a moral obligation.
Honesty may not always pay, but lying always costs. Reputation, trust and credibility are assets no organization
When Molly found a child’s purse with three quarters inside, she chanted, “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” But her mom said the right thing to do was to return it to the person who lost it, and they went to the Lost and Found office. A week later, Molly found a dollar bill on a table. “We’ve got to go to …
Years ago, my wife Anne was talking to a woman I’ll call Lila about another lady I’ll call Gwen. Gwen had just been laid off and since she had only worked for the company for a short time, she wasn’t eligible to continue the company’s medical insurance. That’s important because she was eight weeks pregnant, and the reason she took …
When my son Justin was in high school, I went to an open house to meet his teachers. I was taken aback when one teacher casually mentioned that she had disciplined my son for cheating on a homework assignment. I asked my son why he hadn’t told me about this incident. “You didn’t ask,” he said. To say the least, …
This story is about a truth-versus-caring ethical dilemma I once had. I think I did the right thing but I keep wondering if there was a better way. I was putting my two-year-old to bed when Abrielle, who was four, came screaming down the hall in a panic. Samara, the five-and-a-half-year-old, was right behind her equally terrified. “I swallowed a …
Can a job applicant properly withhold information about a criminal record or being fired in a previous job? Can a woman who has just started dating properly say nothing about a previous marriage or abortion? These are problems of candor: When does an ethical person have a duty to reveal negative information about his past? First, let’s reinforce a basic …
What do you think? In today’s society, does a person have to lie or cheat at least occasionally to succeed?
No one should take any joy in seeing the undoing of a man’s life by the bad judgment of telling what seems to be little lies. Most people, even good people, lie at least occasionally. Sometimes, as in Brian Williams case, it is a seemingly harmless embellishment or exaggeration of a story (“I caught a fish THIS BIG”). Sometimes it’s …
The cheating involved some students using a handheld device known as a clicker to answer questions for classmates who were absent. Many of the students were athletes and have been suspended for a semester, according to the newspaper. The incident is the latest in a string of academic scandals to hit selective colleges. Harvard University investigated 125 students in 2012 for …
12 TRUTHS ABOUT LYING. 1. Honesty may not always pay, but lying always costs. 2. Trust is a tower, built stone by stone, lies take stones from the bottom. 3. There is no security in secrecy; every undiscovered lie is a live landmine. 4. Lies breed a bodyguard of new lies to protect themselves. 5. Lies look very different to …
Integrity is one thing you cannot afford to lose. You can give it away or sell it, but you can’t buy it. Without integrity you become nothing and will have nothing. People of integrity do the right thing even if no one else does, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed …
If you manage people, you need to remember that what you don’t know definitely can hurt you. Everyone says they have an open-door policy, but most employees believe no good comes to the bearer of bad news. Rightly or wrongly, they are likely to think there is a kill-the-messenger culture in your organization that gives them an excuse to
A lie is still a lie even if you cross your fingers. Be loyal. Be faithful. Be worthy of trust.
Why is it that the shade of a lie looks so different to the person lied to than the liar? People who lie, sometimes for personal advantage (including avoiding an unpleasant confrontation) and other times to protect the feelings of the person lied to, tend to see their falsehood in shades of white. People lied to tend to see the …
The moral significance and real life impact of lies embedded in the concept of trust. Your ability to generate and sustain trust is not dependent on the frequency of lying but the capacity of the lie to damage or destroy trust. The best liars hardly ever lie, not because they are more honest but because they are more clever. They …
Agree or disagree? “In today’s society, one has to lie or cheat at least occasionally in order to succeed.” This is a fundamental and revealing question on our surveys about personal ethics and integrity. Most interesting is that the level of cynicism is closely related to age. In an online survey on integrity (with 16,000 responses) we found that 43 …
One thing I’ve learned in the 813 weeks I’ve been writing and posting these commentaries is that some people who love you (or at least say they do) can turn on a dime if you disagree with them on something fundamentally important to them. So I confess I think twice (or more) before I publish a commentary I know will …
It’s hard to be too critical of Lance Armstrong – he not only cheated his way to fame, he bullied others and betrayed millions who believed in his self-righteous claims that he was an innocent man being persecuted by jealous enemies. His confession was not an expression of genuine remorse, but another cynical effort to choose the lesser of two …
Trust Across America has named Michael Josephson one of the 100 Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior for 2013. Also on the list is Josephson Institute Board of Governors member Roger Bolton, who is president of the Arthur W. Page Society. Trust Across America researches and seeks to enhance the trustworthiness of organizations in the United States. It publishes this list of …
Several years ago, Josephson Institute edited a book of 41 essays called The Power of Character. Among the accomplished and interesting contributors was John Naber, who won four gold medals and one silver medal in swimming at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, setting four world records in the process. Now, with the London Games in full swing, we are pleased to …
Hi, this is Michael Josephson with my last Something to Think About story for the school year. Julia, an 11th grader was thrilled when she got an A+ on an assignment to design an advertising brochure in an art class. And when her teacher, Mr. Roberts, told her she should consider a career in advertising Julia realized that was exactly what …
Hi this is Michael Josephson with something to think about. When I was a law professor, I administered multiple choice tests that I corrected by hand. One day, Ron came to my office informing me I made a scoring error – in his favor. I was impressed with his honesty and told him so as I was changing my records. …
Trustworthiness is essential to good relationships, and honesty is essential to trustworthiness. Being honest isn’t simply telling the truth, though. It’s also being sincere and forthright. Thus, it’s just as dishonest to deceive someone by half-truths or silence as it is to lie. But what if honesty requires us to volunteer information that could be damaging or hurtful?
Hi, this is Michael Josephson with Something to Think About. Sarah was 16 and when her mom saw that her grades were slipping she said “No parties until you get your grades up.” This led to a nasty fight with Sarah calling her mom unfair and her mom calling Sarah irresponsible. Later Sara tried a different approach. “You’re right,” she …
A master carpenter who worked for the same builder for nearly 50 years announced that he wanted to retire. The builder told him how much he appreciated his work. He gave the carpenter a $5,000 bonus and asked him if he would build just one more house. The builder owned a magnificent lot with a spectacular view and he wanted …
