Several years ago, I was retained by a client to assist in hiring an operations manager. My responsibility was to lead the hiring team. The team interviewed numerous candidates and finally focused on one. I remember interviewing him and asking questions, seeking to understand his character. The candidate responded with answers that satisfied me, but I had lingering doubts about his veracity. Was he simply “reading” me and responding based on what he thought I wanted to hear, or was he being truthful?
The subject of truth presents interesting questions. Most give little thought to the concept of truth and don’t recognize their own underlying assumptions. For example, does truth even exist? Is truth simply a subjective intellectual construct, as many contend today, or is truth an objective reality? The first view asserts that truth resides within each human being and, accordingly, is dependent on each human being for definition. The latter view claims that truth exists as a reality independent of human beings. Which is correct?
Philosophers have long debated the matter of truth. Some aspects of truth are personal and individual. For example, the truth about your favorite color, music, or food. In a sense, these benign personal preferences are subjective truth. But other than this, truth is a reality that exists independent of human beings and is, therefore, not subjective.
Businesses and organizations of all types produce and deliver products and services based on objective truth rooted in timeless universal principles (TUP). TUP is not dependent on humans. Humans can discover TUP but they cannot redefine or change TUP. For example, when humans fly in airplanes, they tacitly assume that the principles of aerodynamics transcend geography and time. Humans can do nothing to redefine these principles because these principles exist independent of humans. For this reason, humans routinely travel safely by air.
Notwithstanding the subjective truth of personal preferences, the objective truth of TUP governs most of life. Daily the sun rises to warm us, the atmosphere protects us, and the food supply maintains us. Airplanes, computers, automobiles, and phones work the same every day regardless of geography, time, culture, ethnicity, politics, and personal preferences. TUP is essential discoverable truth that facilitates an enjoyable existence for mankind. Humans are safer, work more efficiently, and enjoy more comfort and convenience in life because they have learned to harness the power of TUP. TUP is an expression of objective truth and is an ubiquitous and foundational presupposition for all of life.
The opposite of truth is dishonesty or lies. Lies are allegations of truth that are inconsistent with TUP and therefore not true. Furthermore, alignment with truth produces good results and the reciprocal is true—lies produce bad results. Consequently, to deliver excellent products and services, organizations and workers must align with TUP. For example, most people assume and expect a food label to be true. But suppose that the workers who create ice cream labels believe that truth is subjective, and they decide to assert that ice cream has no calories. While I would love that to be true, it is not; it is a lie. If someone acts on that lie and makes ice cream a staple of his or her diet, probably the result would be weight gain, which most would regard as a bad result. Alignment with lies leads to bad results; conversely, alignment with TUP leads to good results.
Now consider the application of TUP to hiring decisions. If one wants a good hiring result, one must align with TUP and hire people who live according to TUP. Only workers who believe in TUP can produce excellent products and services.
One way to discern if a worker believes in TUP is to look at his or her character. Does the worker display character traits congruent with TUP? One test of character is the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.1 This simple principle is very powerful. Treating humans well requires humility and respect, which engenders reciprocity. This enables organizations to build healthy cultures that serve all stakeholders well. Many organizations, such as Southwest Airlines2 and Worthington Industries,3 recognize the power of the Golden Rule and embrace it as a core principle. Both companies expect their workers to display veracity—congruence with the Golden Rule.
Veracity is about truth and genuineness. Antonyms for veracity would include lies and hypocrisy. Those who value veracity view its antonyms as pejorative traits. There are some, however, who claim that lies are not necessarily bad. A writer of a recent New York Times op-ed challenged the pedestrian view that lying is bad, claiming that empirical research discovered that lying is an indication of intelligence.4 The writer’s interpretation of the research does not reflect biblical thinking. Scripture associates lying with Satan, calling him the father of lies.5 Furthermore, the op-ed writer failed to recognize that lying is systemic in the human race and, therefore, an indication of human depravity.6 This means that all people are infected with the propensity to lie. So, I respectfully disagree with his thesis that lying can be an indication of something good.
Veracity, on the other hand, is a character trait consistent with TUP. Excellent products and services can never be produced by people who embrace lies; they must be produced based on TUP. Given that people want results such as excellence, quality, and efficiency, organizational leaders must build organizations based on TUP and accordingly hire workers who display character congruent with TUP.
Returning to my story, though my client hired the candidate, his true character was eventually revealed. He lied in the interview process and he continued to lie during the performance of his duties. Not surprisingly, his tenure at the company was problematic because character flaws, such as lying, have negative tangible consequences. His character flaws blocked his opportunity to positively add to the organization’s culture. The organization suffered because of poor decisions. Management was unable to respond to the competition and direction of the industry. During this manager’s tenure, the organization’s performance declined. The manager failed to meet the expectations of the company’s owners. In the end, the company was sold for a fraction of what it had been worth just a few years before.
This was a very sad experience for me and inexorably impacted my understanding of the importance of character as a seminal hiring criterion. Don’t hire anyone with major character issues, especially liars. Liars live in unreality, they are ungrounded in TUP and are, therefore, not trustworthy. If people will lie to be hired, they will lie after they are hired. In hindsight, I wish that I had trusted my instincts and performed more background and referencing checking of this candidate; perhaps I would have discovered his lack of veracity and helped my client avoid a hiring mistake.
Organizations can fulfill their purpose only by being unwavering in their commitment to TUP. To do this, the organizations must be populated by managers and workers—and indeed all stakeholders—who display impeccable character. This is a non-negotiable. Good results are rooted in good character. Anyone who is unclear about the role of TUP to govern the universe will have major character flaws that will lead to bad tangible results. Management must be clear on this point. Any compromise can have serious, even devastating, tangible consequences because TUP is real—it is objective truth—and alignment with TUP is the only way to produce excellent tangible results.
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1. Matthew 22:39.
2. https://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/careers/culture.html.
3. https://worthingtonindustries.com/Company/About-Worthington-Industries/Our-Philosophy.
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/opinion/sunday/children-lying-intelligence.html.
5. John 8:44.
6. Romans 3:23.
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