Walter is a very high-level engineer who works on new product development, critical products that generate billions in annual revenue for the corporation.  He presents quarterly to the CEO and executive leadership team who rely heavily on Walter’s technical expertise.

Walter is a really nice guy with a great sense of humor. I liked him right away.  But when he started the presentation that he wanted to practice during our Executive Coaching Session, all the life in him drained away.

I asked him, “Walter, you don’t look like you’re enjoying this very much. What’s happening?”

He said, “I really hate giving this presentation.”

Me: “Why?”

Walter: 

“Last quarter, without talking to me or my team, the CEO promised Wall Street we would have a new product release in January. A brand new product that’s really complicated to develop. The CEO was feeling pressured because our competition is ahead of us on it.

“In our last presentation I tried to tell him that we’re not ready, that it will take us at least a year and I tried to explain why.

“He cut me off and told me that he had already publicly promised Wall Street and we had to do it.  He said that since the competition had done it, he didn’t see any reason why we couldn’t do it. He said it was my problem to figure out, and just to go solve it.

“I went back to my team and we’ve all been running around in complete confusion for the past quarter.  We’ve gotten nothing done and now I have to present our quarterly results and we don’t have any. I have to make it look like we’re working on it and moving forward when we’re not, and you’re right -  I’m most definitely NOT enjoying this at all.”

Walter was faced with the dilemma of:  How do you present something that violates your integrity?

The answer is:  You can’t, not really.

Walter was solving the wrong problem. He got into this mess because he wasn’t able to communicate successfully under pressure, to skillfully navigate this tricky conversation and arrive at a REAL solution with the CEO.  He simply caved to the CEO’s demands. 

And stopped telling the truth.

Walter was now going in with a, “We’re working on it” message which meant that the CEO would also be facing Wall Street analysts and broadcasting to the world, “We’re working on it”.

Problem was, it was a BS message.  Far from the truth.  It would make the situation worse and worse.

Truth was:

“Trying to work on it under unrealistic demands is throwing us into a total confusion.  We haven’t gotten anything done for the last quarter.  The only thing that’s going to get us out of this mess is a realistic deadline that lets us create a realistic plan.  We can release another new product in the meantime that won’t be the fancy-shmancy one, but will keep us in the game while we work on creating a real leading edge product we can be proud of.  I can help you figure out what to tell Wall Street so we come off looking intelligent and successful.”

The coaching session became one of helping Walter develop real communication skills to the point where he was able to go in and communicate truthfully in a way that enabled everything to move forward successfully.

It wasn’t just a matter of saying, “No, we can’t do it and you need to go tell Wall Street that you were wrong.”

That’s not a solution either.

What creates lasting success is REAL communication, effectively carried all the way through, communication that is so GOOD and navigates so well, that it results in sufficient understanding to produce those great realizations in the other person which lead to bright ideas and good judgment.

It requires courage and it requires skill, it requires clarity, it requires listening, it requires intelligence and judgment.

It takes courage to walk into the lion’s den and confront a situation like this.

It takes skill to do it and come out a winner.

As Walter practiced telling the truth, the REAL truth, he discovered more and richer truth within him.  As he became more true, he became more simple.  It’s amazing how not telling the straight truth gets you complicated and complex.

Another Walter, Sir Walter Scott, knew this when in 1808 he wrote: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

As he became more true, our Walter became stronger, then gradually more powerful and, finally, compelling.  Not forceful, compelling.

Walter is now in the process of having these conversations with the CEO and the Executive Leadership Team. He’s feeling a lot better about himself. He’s feeling much stronger, more real, actually effective. Much better about himself.

His presentations are now powerful.  And he knows it.  He feels it.

Best of all, they’re listening to him and letting him lead in the areas where he should lead.

Violations of your own integrity are not light matters, they weigh heavy on your head and your heart.

Communication, real communication requires real truth.

The power of the message is always in its truth.

Be the cause!