Honesty Isn't Good Enough

Students often confuse honesty with doing the right thing.

I'm here to tell you. That's just isn't correct and it's not good enough.

While I do believe being honest is important and the right thing to do, it only goes half way toward really doing the right thing.

Being honest is just the 101 level of leadership. If you can't even be honest, then you have no business calling yourself a leader, claiming you are one, or pretending you are one. If you aren't honest, then don't even start to waste my time. It even pains me that I need to type this. And as much as I want to "learn" you - you'll learn it fast enough in your job, your relationships, your family. How many times have you caused or experienced pain because someone wasn't honest?

But so many students think if they are just honest with you about what is really going on then they should be let off the hook. Again, that's just incorrect.

Just because you're honest with the police officer that you were speeding, doesn't mean you weren't still breaking the law.

In fact, I think that's a good new fill in the blank game for members of fraternities and sororities:

Just because you were honest with _______ that you were _______, doesn't mean you weren't/aren't still _______.

While I can appreciate it would be nice to live in a world where you got to do whatever you want whenever you wanted without any consequences, that isn't the world we all live in.

Now stop acting as if it's your "right" to do whatever you want - it's not true and it certainly isn't leadership.