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Of leaders, lies and euphemisms



We can describe lying in as many ways as we like...

I love Lucy Kellaway's FT columns, this one from February last year is a classic. I got to thinking about leaders and lies, and how lies are euphemistically described when Sir John Chilcot today described Tony Blair as "not straight with the nation" on the Iraq war when he was British Prime Minister. Sir Robert Armstrong, British Cabinet Secretary said during the 'Spycatcher' trial in 1986 that a book written by a former MI5 employee "...contains a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being economical with the truth.". More recently Kellyanne Conway introduced us to the notion of "alternative facts" http://bit.do/dySAA Is it no surprise therefore that Edelman's 2017 Trust barometer finds "that trust is in crisis around the world. The general population’s trust in all four key institutions — business, government, NGOs, and media — has declined broadly, a phenomenon not reported since Edelman began tracking trust among this segment in 2012". Here is an opportunity, if ever I saw one, for smart comms leaders with integrity to take some initiative. https://lnkd.in/d4D8HDQ

Comments

  1. UnknownFriday 7 July 2017 at 09:23:00 BST

    Ah, but there's the rub: until 'integrity' is seen as a valuable corporate asset, it will always play second fiddle to more shareholder-friendly attributes like expediency and return on investment. I appreciate it's your business, Tari, and the question is largely rhetorical, but how is integrity to be parlayed into something that has stakeholder value in a world of objectivity, materialistic goals, economic short-termism and an all round lack of joined-upness?

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    1. UnknownFriday 7 July 2017 at 12:28:00 BST

      You're right, integrity is an intangible asset. After all, reputation only became an issue for the top strategic table when analysts started to incorporate it within their valuations. The same applied to the notion of social responsibility. So I have hopes that integrity will join this band of valuable intangibles. As long as it continues to stay on the agenda (activists and social media will help push this along), the more chance there is that communicators will have to, one day, get in line. If I had a pound every time I see 'integrity' on the list of corporate values, I'd be rich woman. Challenge is for leadership to live that value.

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