I love the saying, “If you’re honest, nothing else matters.  If you’re not honest, nothing else matters.”  it states in a clear, unequivocal way that honesty and integrity in business (and in life) are everything.  If you’re not honest, nothing else you do matters.  Your dishonesty spreads such a dark cloud over everything else you do, nobody can see even a glimmer light coming from the good things you might have done.

I talked to a friend the other day whose accountant had allowed himself to be paid for two days he didn’t work.  Now, I don’t know how you see this, but to me it’s the same as if he’d stolen cash in the amount of two days wages.  I asked my friend, “What did you do?”  He replied that he hadn’t done anything — yet.

What?  The person who is closer to your money than you are, more deeply involved in your financial situation than you are, and who has been appointed and etrusted to watch the financial gate just stole money from you and you didn’t even ask why?  What’s wrong with this picture?

What I know for sure is, if a person on the factory floor walks off with a tool or something, I might be willing to listen to his story before I let him go.  But when a person in a position of trust (and in this case, not just a position of trust but the position of trust) does something like that there is no discussion, no forgiveness no second chance, no nothing.  You’re outta here!  There are many things I’m willing to help managers work through.  Honesty and integrity issue are not on that list.

Business relationships are built on trust (much like a marriage.)  When that trust has been violated, the relationship suffers.  I know it sounds harsh to let someone go without a second chance, but let’s follow this scenario to a possible conclusion:  The accountant starts by stealing time.  Nobody notices.  Then he takes a few dollars for lunch.  Again, nobody notices.  Then he starts skimming regularly.  Still, nobody notices.  Then he’s dipping deeply — so deeply that somebody notices.  It’s only then you realize that so much money is missing you can’t make the payroll and the other bills and the business fails.  200 people are out of a job because of the greed of one trusted manager.

Can you afford that?

What?  Maybe he will just let it be at 2 days of free pay?  Maybe he’ll repent and never do it again if you just talk sternly to him?  Maybe this was a special circumstance?  Well, maybe so.  But the real question here is, can you afford to find out?  In the businesses I’ve been in there isn’t the time or the energy to back-check someone who might be (or more especially, someone who’s proven himself to be) dishonest.  No, for me you’re either honest and I trust you implicitly, or you’re not, and you don’t work here.

Honesty is not a grey area.  It’s pure black and white.  More black and white than any other thing in business.  For me, honesty is a deal-breaker.  For me there is no wiggle room on this issue.  For me, it is better to be trusted than to be loved.

How do you see it?