Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Sin of Lying

Here's an interesting story I heard sometime back...

A minister told his congregation, "Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Chapter 17. The following Sunday, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Chapter 17. Every hand went up. The minister smiled and said, "There are only sixteen chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying."

In the corporate world, there are many such characters who they know stuff which they are not even aware of... but just to be on the right side of the boss they nod their heads that they know about the context, with their fingers crossed that the next question will not drill down into further details... part of this tendency to be a compulsive liar is the fear of not knowing, while other might; and the other part is the feeling of being superior, that sudden surge of minuscule adrenaline rush, when you know more than the others.

I heard one person in my company, claim that the company spends 30% of the total advertising spends in India and when asked to support his claim with facts, he simply shrugged it off saying why should he share this information with anyone, in a ridiculing tone...

The fact was that the company, tough being one of the largest conglomerates, spent about 2% of the Advertising spend and probably 3% of the marketing spends. But however far you are away from the truth, the tendency to lie not only takes away your respect, but also your ability to respect others, your tendency to be open to accept ideas that will help you grow as a good manager and as an even better person...