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A lady friend of mine, who was invited for an interview from another company different from hers, asked me for resources pertaining to interviews. I referred her to the 25 Common Interview Question at the sidebar of this site. After perusing the material, she told me one very important question was missing; she asked “if you go for an interview and your present boss asks where you have been, when you were suppose to be in the office, what would your answer be?” I smiled at that very thought-through question (supposedly naïve question IMHO) and simply gave her the only solution I had.

She refuted the answer I gave her, went for the interview anyway and gave me the line by line gist of the event. She said she came to office early as usual, left without any notice for the interview and returned to the office some hours later. When her boss quizzed on where she had been? She kept mute until her boss asked her if it were personal and she responded positively to that with a “YES” answer. Well, as you can imagine, she escaped lying to her boss (so she thought). This particular event kept me wondering on what people refer to as Lies

This brought another story to mind on the nature of perceived lies. It was my first day in Access Bank as an employee and I was to receive a speech (together with the newly employed) by the MD/CEO of the bank in the bank’s exquisite conference room. In order to buttress his point on one the bank’s key value-trust, he gave a very interesting story. He said if we were in the management team and we were to make a decision on the choice of contractor to handle the supply of paper. He said if one of the contractors were my brother (or related to me in anyway) and I did not declare this knowledge to the management team; if I kept mute about this information for whatever reason and the decision was taken – no matter what the decision was, the person whose brother was one of the candidate has breached their trust. In simple terms, he/she lied.

Is there any difference between diplomacy and lies? Diplomacy is the skill and tact of dealing people. The ability to deal with people is the prerequisite for any successful person, company, nation, venture, etc. In order to successful deal with people, you have to know when to refrain from telling the truth. Then the question will be, is refraining from telling the truth a lie? Before I answer this very important question, lets review what my favourite dictionary – Encarta refer to as a lie;

 

Number 2 hits the nail on the head to what I am about to ask; does branding simply mean lying, is diplomacy another word for lying, can an employee succeed in a corporate environment without lying, do you think a politician can be successful without lying, do you envision an excellent customer service without a big lie and can you succeed in this world without lying?

These are questions once answered honestly brings in a different dimension to your person. It is better to tell yourself the truth than tell others. It is better to know that once you tow the line of success, you will eventually deal with people. The more you honestly try to answer these questions above, the more diplomatic you will end up……….

You may refer to LIAR LIAR