One of propellants that allowed Donald Trump to ascend to his party's nomination was the perception of him"telling it like it is." "He's an outsider." "It's like a breath of fresh air." "He's not so politically correct."
None of this, as it turns out, means that the man is particularly truthful. Politifact, which rates all candidates on truthfulness, found that 52% of Trump's evaluated statements were either outright false or worse "pants on fire." (As in "Liar. . .Liar. . ."). 52%! In contrast, Hillary Clinton's percentage is 12%.
Just because someone is an outsider, just because they break constraints, just because they can "sell" an idea with their presentation, just because they are bombastic or "really just puts it all out there". . .doesn't necessarily mean they are truth-tellers.
Decades ago, I had a friend, "Ruth." Ruth had a knack for presenting her ideas as if they had been handed down by God. Everything was stated as fact. . .the problem was, it was often wrong. Ruth's were led down paths of presumption and opinion and bias.
Similarly, I worked with C-Suite guy who had the seeming ability to do the most complex math in his head. "Let me see, if the wage differential were .15/hour for 23 employees, but .38/hour for the remaining 238, over the period of the next 14 weeks the incremental wage, plus indirect expenses would be. . . ." Everyone was amazed by this individual's head-calculating. Finally, I started to bring my calculator to meetings. While he was doing his verbal/mental number manipulation thing, I was fact-checking him on a calculator. Every time he was wrong. He wasn't even close. He was wowing the crowds, but he wasn't truthful. . .
My caution, whether in politics, work or personal relationships, is that we become so bedazelled by the polish, the bravado, the breakthrough presentation. . .that we neglect to seek and honor the truth. Here, then are some basics:
Be able to differentiate opinion from fact.
The greater the hyperbole ("the greatest," "the best," "thousands of people say") usually the further it is from the truth.
Is the individual most interested in promoting himself/herself? If so - usually the truth suffers.
Vagueness, as in "I've heard that. . ." seldom serves the truth well.
Is the individual pandering to you?
Be able to seek facts; be your own fact-checker.
Propogate facts; be willing to speak up if you know the true story.
Look beneath the sheens of "what a breath of fresh air" and "he really tells it like it is" to understand if the individual is really rooted in reality - or just exhaling truly hot and toxic air.
Truth is fundamental; it guides to the right conclusions. Falsehoods take us to bad places. Seek, sow and spread the truth.
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My book "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is available on Amazon.
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