My Mistake Was Honesty

Is honesty always the best policy? I was raised believing that this was the case. “Always be honest and you can’t go wrong.” We would have some dire consequences when we did something wrong and lied about it. It was always better to just admit you were wrong and take the punishment, which would be far less than if you tried to cover it up. If you tried to lie to cover up, then the consequences were far worse.

We are human, and we mess up.

My family background and teaching were not too helpful for the corporate world. A world where dog eats dog and the more ambitious rats in the rate race devour those below them and climb over them to reach the next rung up on the corporate ladder.

Not all corporations are like this, and certainly most don’t start out to be like this, but over time, ambition replaces decency and empire building within the corporation occurs.

Having worked in many corporations throughout my working life, I adopted a practice that people shouldn’t have to adopt, but it was a means for survival.

I call it ‘CYA’ a file that I have now where ever I go. It stands for “Cover Your Arse”. I have been fortunate enough not to use it in the last 10 years. But it’s a habit I will keep with me. Once bitten, twice shy, as they say.

I figured out early in my career that honesty is not the best policy unfortunately and this does not align with my inner self. I try to be as honest as possible. Do I lie, of course I do. If I said I didn’t then that would just be another lie.

The CYA file came about when I first realised that people, particularly senior management in corporations, have very short term memories. I used the file to store emails.

The emails I store in it are strategic ones, ones where senior management has made a decision or a declaration that may just come back to bite us in the butt.

Over time and through corporate politics and experience, you learn exactly which emails to store. It is usually about budgets or project decisions. I keep emails where I have disagreed with my boss on something that I had a bad gut feel for. I have been in corporations long enough now that I know exactly which emails may come back to bite myself or my team.

I hate that I have to have a CYA file but I have proven this decision to be right over many years. You soon realise in dealing with people, just whose emails you need to keep in your file.

Early in my career, I thought that I had done something good. We had international guests from our European head office and we were presenting to them. My presentation centered on a new range of products we were about to launch.

We had discovered some problems with the supply of certain elements of the product range, but had worked hard on a solution. I highlighted this in the presentation, also highlighting all the hard work that our project team had done to overcome the challenges. I thought in my naivety that this would be good in case some other countries or regions had similar issues, perhaps our solution could assist.

Boy, was I wrong! Straight after the presentation, they called me into my boss's office and informed that we present nothing that will make top management think that our projects are not running smoothly. Never highlight problems. If you have already solved them, just present the results. ‘Present what you are doing not how you are doing it.’ ‘How’ is only for when you are specifically asked about that aspect of the project. And there ended the lesson and the CYA file was born.

I realised that if the project did not run smoothly, none of the potential issues would be known and the project team, including myself, would be denigrated for the failure of the project.

If you are in the corporate world, keep a CYA file of your own, because when things go pear-shaped, you will need it.

On another occasion I was asked about my marketing budget being overspent. In my trusty CYA file I pulled out an email with the financial director and the CEO’s sign off of my request for the money based on an agreed decision we were all supporting 6 months earlier. The financial director had forgotten about the decision. I had not and my CYA file did its job.

Everything went quiet when I hauled out the email to remind everyone of our joint decision. CYA file to the rescue. That is one of many examples where it was used. In future posts I will highlight some others. The principle is that people have short memories in corporations and sometimes they need a little assistance.

Lessons:

People are ambitious, some are so ambitious that they will sell their own mother to climb the corporate ladder.

Senior managers are often playing games of smoke and mirrors don’t destroy the illusion they are trying to create.

Make sure that you have all the facts at your fingertips for when the egg hits the fan to ensure you don’t have egg on your face

Sometimes shared lessons are not what corporations need, depending on the culture.

Not all corporations are like this, I have been lucky enough to have only worked in two such corporations, but what I learnt has opened my eyes.

I still think being open and honest is the best policy and hence the CYA file.

Do everything in writing, so that you have a written record to refer to. He said she said never works. What is written cannot be denied.