Honesty is generally a much-underrated attribute associated with a leader; but the lack of it has a huge consequence on not the just the leader, but the employees, clients & the business as a whole. Internal reliability is when the leaders are honest to themselves but external reliability is when leaders are honest to not only themselves but also to the outside world.
A leader who is honest to the world will always earnestly work towards fulfilling promises made to his employees, colleagues or clients and when he fails to so, he will acknowledge his failure openly and will churn out details in a transparent manner.
This openness encourages productivity and sustains a happy & comfortable working environment which helps the business in the long run. Clients are happy to do business with you, employees are happy to work harder and give it all they have and your business will grow. The lack of honesty will create a chaotic & unhealthy work environment which will chase away new businesses & lower productivity in employees & also lower retention rate.
Honesty is always taken for granted & assumed as a given in a leader, but many leaders in the process of climbing up the success ladder take shortcuts and what begins as white lies elevates to huge conspiracies & cover-ups causing a slow but dreadful death of the business.
So, be honest you might gain much more than you lose!
