Tips to Avoid Demo Drama - Tip 14: Never tell a lie—not even a small white one

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One of my first managers was always telling us “Never ever tell a lie, not even a white lie”. My father always says, “In the long term, honesty always pays off”. I agree: this is absolutely true.

Why does this matter? It is all about trust. Trust and trustworthiness are the cornerstones of a good relationship. It is not always easy to tell the truth, especially if it is not what your audience wants to hear. However, my approach is to be 100% honest. Sometimes it might be uncomfortable to have to say, “No, you cannot do that” or “We do not support this”. However, if you try to mislead your audience, it will certainly come back to haunt you.

More importantly, lying will jeopardise your role as a trusted specialist or advisor. Misunderstandings do and will occur. However, if you realise that one has occurred, or you have given a wrong answer, fix it immediately. Contact the customer and confirm both the question and the correct answer.

As an advisor, I need to be fully honest at all times, no matter how much it hurts. My experience is that this has helped me to establish very good relationship with both customers and non-customers.