Workwise: Countering lies in dirty politics
They're the norm in today's business

Mildred Culp

www.workwise.net

By Mildred L. Culp
Saturday, February 2, 2008 12:06 PM CST

Lies supporting dirty politics roam throughout the workplace, in the community and in families, and you need to know how to handle them. Psychologist David Gruder, author of "The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World" (Elite Books, $17.95), says, "Lies and dirty politics are not only the norm today, but they are in some senses expected."

Elaine Englehardt, distinguished professor of ethics and special assistant to the president at Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah, points out that a habitual liar or one focused solely on personal gain "gives us a picture of reality that's different from what exists."

"A habitual liar could be a sociopath who cares only about himself, sabotaging others by deliberately and maliciously lying merely to advance his career and himself." Englehardt says.

Some people laugh off a lie, assuming that it's not worth confronting. Others uncritically accept a lie, Englehardt says, particularly "if it's provocative, even when facts are placed in front of them."

Gruder mentions that repetition becomes particularly damaging as a lie circulates, prompting others to repeat what they've heard.

"It's that repetition more than a lie by itself (that damages)," he says.

Your first instinct might be to ignore a lie about you, but as it swells into a crescendo, you might want to rethink your strategy. In the workplace, this is particularly important because a lie can rapidly contaminate the environment. This also is particularly important if you work among people who don't think critically. But be hopeful.

"There is always a minority, but oftentimes a powerful minority, with the flexibility and fairness to revise their points of view, or to resist adopting a negative point of view in the first place, even when others try to convince them to do so," says Amie Devero, management consultant at The Devero Group in Tampa.

"CONTAINMENT"

How do you know when to begin to confront the lies? Devero reminds you that you needn't respond instantly because "reputations are built over time, and it takes a very big lie or a real transgression to destroy them overnight."

"If someone has lied about you and damaged your reputation, clarify the issue, confront the exact thing that was said and the person who said it, and correct the information," Devero says.

Gruder maintains each case is different, but that you might hold back until you begin to hear the propaganda machine at work, such as when three people are telling a lie.

If an individual lies with impunity, Gruder recommends, "React with righteous indignation, indicating that this is really intolerable." Prepare for what he calls "containment in degrees of intensity."

He suggests beginning with the mildest form because if it isn't effective, you can increase it later. Using the most intensive could backfire, compelling you to correct two instances of damage, new and old. Consider his escalating steps:

-- "Talk to that person privately, or with a neutral third party, where he doesn't have to put on a face for the public. Explain that his statements of fact are not that, and that you need to clear this up in order to continue to collaborate.

- "Identify key people in the system to tell that a lie is circulating. Ask these key influencers for advice about how to respond. Make this a sincere attempt to serve the collective highest good.

- "Organize an intervention if the previous methods prove ineffective.

- "Gather people who understand what the truth really is to collaborate on a procedure for publicly confronting the liar" "" but only if you're desperate, because of the humiliation it causes. This could mean a note in a personnel file.

Finally, you might take comfort in knowing, as Englehardt contends, that "sooner or later the lies will catch up with the liar, making him a victim of his own ill will."

Mildred Culp comments upon the workplace in national media. Look for more of her helpful information at www.workwise.net. Copyright 2007 Passage Media.

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