How to be Honest at Work
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It is with great joy and sadness that I retire the Women in the Workplace series. I started it at a time when I didn’t know how much I would need it. Shortly after beginning the weekly feature I lost my job, which only further pushed what I shared and featured. I’m super happy with how it went and never imagined it would last more than 6 months. Look at us now! A little over a year and we are still going strong, plus an entire newsletter was centered around it. Don’t worry! I’ll continue to share work related topics as they come up and as I see fit, but for now, this will be the final Women in the Workplace Wednesday post.
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With that being said, let’s dig into today’s topic… how to be honest! This was a request from a while ago and I’m happy to finally write about it. I thought it was fitting to share today, as I had to be honest with myself and let this series go. I know, I know. Let’s talk about it from a work perspective! As a project manager, I’ve had to ask people to be honest with me a lot. No, not in a malicious / lying sense. Though if you want to talk about that, I have a whole post devoted to gossip at work. I’m talking about more in a sense of don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Be honest with me so I can manage the project as well as everyone’s expecting me to. Telling me something is ahead or on-time when they are not, is not actually helping. I’d prefer honesty as it actually helps versus hinders!
Anyway, that is just a taste of my experience with honesty in the workplace. Today I want to dive into practical tips and do’s / don’ts for being honest at the office, which of course can apply OOO too ;)
DO:
Own up to mistakes. This is obvious, right? I think so, but still something worthy of mentioning. I remember in one of my previous interviews, the interviewer mentioned it was important to just own up to mistakes and keep moving. There was some football analogy that I won’t bore you with, but basically though everyone knows this, few do this. As a project manager I often have to be the one who deals with issues and I couldn’t tell you how many grown adults won’t own up to mistakes. They often are set on playing the blame game. To be honest, in the end I don’t really care who did it. I try to get to the HOW it happened and how we can prevent it from happening again. Owning up to mistakes and moving forward will not only make the process faster but also garner you more respect.
Have a plan. This goes hand in hand with owning mistakes. If something is wrong and you have to admit it to your boss, try and make sure you have a plan to fix it or ensure it doesn’t happen again. This makes hearing the news a little easier and shows that you have initiative.
Communicate correctly. Again, kind of in line with the two points above, make sure you are clearly communicating issues (along with plans to resolve them!) and to the right people. Try not to leave anyone out whom it might affect as it is usually best coming from your lips than others. Plus then you get to control the narrative!
Speak your mind. Whether it is about a raise or what not, stand up for yourself and talk to the person who can affect change. No, not encouraging gossip here! If it is your boss, talk to them, not the rest of the office.
Stand up for others. Be honest when jokes aren’t funny or when someone is picking on a person and it goes past office banter. Don’t stay silent. It may not always immediately help, but at least you tried.
Keep your word. A big one!! Do what you commit to. A great person I used to work with told me that giving something on time is late and getting it before the deadline is preferred. I know this can’t always happen, but strive for it. Oh and when you can’t keep your word, make sure to communicate properly. And no, that doesn’t mean 15 minutes before the meeting starts ;) Seriously! If you think a deadline can’t be met I want to know at least a day in advance if not more. I can usually help fix something the earlier I find out, making it better for everyone.
DON’T:
Play the blame game. See above but really. How old are you? I’m not saying don’t stand up for yourself, but don’t sit in a room pointing fingers. I do know that some people are extremely mean and point things out publicly, so if you are used to this it isn’t surprising that blaming is your go-to defense. Personally I always try to first discuss things privately and move on from there. I never want to embarrass anyone!!
Be mean. Being direct is okay. Yelling at people (privately or publicly) is not okay. I once had a boss that thought it was okay and preferred this type of negative communication. You can read more about that experience here. I know we are all adults, but kindness is king and being an adult is not a reason to be rude. I’ve watched so many people do this, especially women to other women and it is B A D.
Throw people under the bus. Try not to backstab, even when people deserve it. Always try and talk directly to the person first if possible. Typically I don’t get bosses involved unless I have to, and it is never to backstab.
Complain to others. Just because you feel undervalued, underpaid, overworked, etc, that is not someone else's problem. Again, talk directly to the person you need to say this to (aka your boss). Don’t gossip and such around the office.
Take Advantage. Integrity is right there with honesty and taking advantage of others just isn’t cool. I’ll leave it at that.
Here’s an example of something that I had to be honest about that wasn’t a personal problem or a co-worker issue: I found out we were using a product from a country we weren’t supposed to. We already had the product and there were plans to re-label the product with a different country of origin to essentially cover it up and move forward. What would you do? I decided to inform my boss and have a rush PO sent. It wasn’t a fun conversation / experience, but it is better than the alternative. There were extra steps that had to be made, but a lot less extra steps if we did cover it up and it was discovered after the fact.
The point is being honest isn’t always easy, but it is what is right. I know some offices don’t have high ethics or morals (been in those offices!), but standing up for what you believe in will never go out of style. It is also usually easier in the long run to be honest than holding up a bunch of lies, no matter how hard it is in the moment.
Additionally, being honest with others will create an environment over time where people will be honest with you. Perhaps not always in our personal lives, but in our work lives. If they realize you could have humiliated them but you spoke to them privately about things, etc they will likely respect you in the future.
Oh and one more thing! I think there are some cases when not to be honest. One of those times would be when you are interviewing and are asked why you are looking to leave a company. Don’t talk poorly about it no matter how bad it was. Give a generic response like you are looking for new opportunities. If you talk bad about a previous or even current employer it often serves as a red flag for not hiring you.
Any tips for being honest at the office or any instances you want to share? Let me know! Oh and stay true to yourself! XOXO It’s been great with this series and I’m so thankful you have followed along.
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