I love this quote: “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” – somehow apparently wrongly attributed to James A. Garfield (former president of the US). Yet I find it ever to true in particular because part of my job as consultant is sometime to tell the truth everybody sees in the organization but no-one dares tell top management.
One issue with telling the truth is that it needs to be done the right way: it needs to be done in a way that avoids outright rejection. If rejection happens, then it was no use.
In these tough situations, there are several ways to avoid rejection, which are best combined:
- establish a trust relationship with the person you need to tell the truth (the longer relationship the better; good references also help),
- tell the truth in a manner that passes the message while still being (borderline) acceptable by the recipient; the best is to interact at that occasion to calibrate the message,
- exploit time to make the revelation gradually accepted, through repetition and letting time and nights do their work in the subconscious.
I am convinced that Truth will hurt on the short term, still it is a much better remedy on the longer term. Tell it, and tell it the right way.
