Management Rules: 50 New Rules for Managers

CHAPTER 7

HONESTY AND INTEGRITY: DITCH THE ETHICS COURSE

For followers, honesty and integrity has nothing to do with morality and ethics. So you will be spared the tedium of the business school ethics course. Honesty and integrity is much more important than morality: it is all about trust.

Put simply, do you want to work for a boss you do not trust? Occasionally, we have to work for such people, but hopefully not for long.

Perhaps the best way to lose trust is to say “trust me”. Never trust anyone who says “trust me”. Trust must be built, not claimed. You have three tools for managing trust:

• Values alignment
• Credibility
• Risk

Here they are in more detail.

Values Alignment

Understand, respect and possibly share the values of the person you are dealing ...