There are at least two kinds of trust in the workplace.
I trust your integrity to maintain consistency between what you say and do.
I trust your ability to get things done and get it right.
Inevitably though, we don’t always get things right. Faced with our misstep, we can cover it up or own up.
In the moment, it’s so tempting to cover it up. We fear the loss of reputation or momentum. We hate to lose future opportunities. Perhaps we think they’ll never find out.
When we try to cover up an ability issue, we end up with an integrity issue.
The irony is, ability issues are so easy to forgive. Integrity issues are hard to forget. If you make a mistake, own it. Your integrity will grow.
Sacrificing integrity to protect reputation means, eventually, you’ll lose both.
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