The Hindu Business Line : Being honest when no one’s looking

In 1980, G.R. Viswanath captained India in the Jubilee test against England. The England batsman, Bob Taylor, was given out by the umpire. As Taylor started his walk to the pavilion, Vishy called him back saying he was not out. Taylor returned and made a big score. England went on to win the match.

Twenty-five years later. 2005. The Rome Open Tennis Tournament. Fernando Verdasco serving against Andy Roddick. Roddick on match point. Verdasco’s second serve is called fault. Game, set and match to Roddick? Andy Roddick tells the chair umpire that the ball was in. The umpire reverses the decision. Roddick loses the point, the game, the set and the match to Verdasco.

These are two examples of outstanding sportsmanship. That is not the point of this piece. These examples led me to think about the kinds of dilemmas and conflicts we face in the real world and that managers come up against in their normal workday.

The dilemma of choosing to be dishonest and yet not cheating. The conflict we frequently face in the corporate world. Let me explain what I mean. In the two situations above, the issue is — could Vishy or Roddick have been accused of cheating if they had not got the umpires to overrule their decision in favour of their opponents? Did they need to tell the umpire that their judgment was wrong? The answer is a definite NO.

The reason is simple. It is the umpire’s job to take the decision and the players have to abide by it. They were definitely not cheating if they went by the umpire’s decision.

Then why did they do what they did? They were obviously driven by something more important to them. Honesty. They could not accept a situation when they knew the truth was otherwise even though they were not answerable for the situation or decision.

Dilemmas of the modern day manager

This, I believe, is the crux of the dilemmas of executives in the world of business today. As executives, we are often faced with situations that we could comfortably turn a blind eye to because it does not concern us. However, we know what is being done is not right by the book and the dilemma we will face is — should we speak out?

In life, we are often faced with such situations. In the business world this is very common. Having been a salesman all my working life, I know the dilemma a salesperson faces when selling a product to a customer when he knows that it would not be the most suitable for the purchaser.

Not that it would be harmful but he knows that the customer could do without it or could go in for something else that would be more suitable. The saliva dripping temptation of achieving sales targets and bonuses prevent us from saying so. We rationalise by saying the customer is capable of taking the decision. This situation is even more critical when the customer asks for a particular product or service that we know is not the best for him or her.

Or take the case of an HR manager who sells the company and its virtues to the candidate, only to leave the company soon after the new candidate joins. He was probably on his notice period while recruiting the person. What was the sales spiel about the company all about? Cheating? Or dishonesty?

Similar examples could be extended to almost any role in the corporate world or our personal lives. Often the line dividing being dishonest and cheating is thin. The dilemma is even greater when the responsibility rests squarely on us and we do not have an umpire who can shoulder the responsibility, as in the world of sport.

In the corporate world, we are also responsible to the company we work for and to our customers, colleagues and suppliers. There are many situations when there is no one to supervise us. In those times, we have to take the call. What does one do?

Integrity — what’s that?

This brings up the matter of integrity. In a time of conflict or dilemma, personal integrity is what tells us what to do. I am sure we all agree on what integrity means. I tried defining integrity in a way that would explain the essence and spirit of the word to students, workshop participants, friends and colleagues.

As I have said, no one could hold it against Vishy or Roddick if they did not do what they did. Yet, they displayed high levels of integrity in their actions and behaviour. So what is integrity? The words that come to mind are honest, truthful, conscientious, and the like.

They all explain integrity and yet do not capture the essence of integrity. In a recent chat with my friend Jeya Kumar who is the CEO of a large IT company, he came up with a one-sentence definition of integrity that struck me as both succinct and apt.

Jeya described integrity as what you do when no one is watching. It set me thinking and I think this pretty much sums up a quality we talk of frequently as an important part of a manager’s toolkit. I was looking for some simple examples to get this point across.

A taxi driver in Hyderabad unknowingly helped me out. I was on a private visit to the city and had arranged a cab for the day. We had discussed the rates and though I found the driver’s rates for an air-conditioned car high, we struck a deal. The next morning as I got into the car, the driver told me that since the day was pleasant and there was really no need for the AC, I could choose to hire the car without having the AC on for Rs 850. This was Rs 150 less than the agreed rate for the AC car. I was stumped.

The driver made me an offer that would see him forego 15 per cent of his revenue. An excellent example of a person who was being helpful at the cost of losing 15 per cent revenue. I cannot imagine a corporate professional who would be willing to do this.

As I go over this incident, I get greater clarity on what integrity means and Jeya’s definition of “no one is watching”. I get greater clarity on the number of times in our jobs we may not be cheating but are not honest either. Such honesty may not even be demanded of us and yet it would make us stand out from the rest.

Integrity is a quality that everyone talks about as essential in managers and leaders. Successful leaders are people with unquestionable integrity. I believe that each one of us has to give serious thought to this aspect of integrity and articulate clearly what it means to us personally and how we could translate it into action and behaviour.

We may not have many executives who cheat. I am equally sure we do not have many managers who are honest. We must ask ourselves how many Viswanaths and Roddicks we have on our team? Or on a personal level, can I be a Viswanath or Roddick? That is what will make us truly great.

(The writer is Director, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore.)