11/12/2020
We often cannot pick our teams, clients, and coworkers and can get stuck with some immoral people who create problems of all types through dishonesty. You can protect yourself from the chaos they create by using ethical understanding to identify and deal with the liar.
In ethics terms, lies are unacceptable because they undermine the humanity of everyone. In other words, if lying were acceptable, society would break down. We would have no way to agree on what time of day it was, much less the rate for billable hours, if everyone lied. Lies defy both logic and humanness, making them particularly objectionable from any school of ethics.
There are three primary types of liars requiring different ethical strategies to defeat their deceptions. Although both ethicists and psychology scholars study deception, I use layman’s terms to keep things simple. But let’s be clear about one thing: although you may be able to contain a liar’s damage and lessen the impact of their deviousness, you can never fix a deceptive person. You can simply lessen the impact of deception on your PR team and performance.
The pathetic liar
The pathetic liar wants to be liked and creates deception in order to avoid conflict and have coworkers like him or her. These types of liars go along with groupthink, rarely offer their own opinions or leadership, and seem to change their minds frequently. The pathetic liar may have exaggerated his or her experience and take on more than is feasible, resulting in a litany of excuses for poor work. Although their lies are damaging, these are normally the least dangerous type of liar and often the easiest to contain.
Strategies to contain this type of liar include requiring written assessments or ideas before a meeting, asking for verification of completed work, examples, or simply asking the person to explain why a sudden change in opinion has occurred. Giving the pathetic liar permission to deviate from group norms often decreases their propensity.
