I’m surprised how often people hide their true intentions in business situations. Instead of explanation of their goals and determination to achieve them they weave their way through unclear actions, change arrangements and strange attitude.
You’re capped at a specific budget in the contract? Why don’t you just send the message to the vendor allowing them to decide if the project can still be a win-win situation instead of using dirty tricks on negotiations which create poor atmosphere and lack of trust? You don’t have money to pay for the invoice? Say that on the very first day you know it instead of waiting until supplier is completely pissed off and see no reason to continue doing business with you. You want to sell your small piece of shares? Try to be honest with other shareholders and/or higher management so they can help you with that instead of playing your little games (one against everyone) which are doomed to failure. I could go with the list of examples for hours.
On the other hand I remind situations when we came to our customers and told the truth which definitely wasn’t the best news heard that day.
“We’ve decided to overtake the project from our subcontractors, what means you should expect the quality will be lower for some time while we’re overtaking the code. We’ll do everything we can to reduce the impact of the action on your systems.” Cold gaze and question if the quality could be even worse wasn’t the reaction I expected, but after all both sides knew what was to be expected.
“You ask me how many developers actually work on your project. Well, actually only 3 of them at the moment.” And I knew my predecessors would aim for the number between 20 and 30. The answer was: “Well, we see that clearly. That way we’ll try to plan our tasks in a way which won’t overload them.”
“Yes, we know you can’t overrun your budget, but we’re in the same situation – our owners expect we won’t take projects which are under water. We can either leave it or try to find a solution which will suit both sides.” And surprise, surprise, we haven’t lost the deal.
Sometimes I think honesty in business is considered as a serious error, while my experience is that it usually helps to build trust. And unless you don’t plan to do long-time business with the customer gaining their trust is essential. What’s your experience in that area? Do you find honesty common in business situations?
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