According to Wikipedia encyclopedia, Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully related to truth as a value. This includes listening, and any action in the human repertoire, such as body language and tone used while speaking. The meaning of the word truth extends from honesty, good faith, and sincerity.

Honesty means simply stating facts and views as best one truly believes them to be. It includes both honesty to others, and to oneself and about one’s own motives and inner reality. Dishonesty, at times, has the ability to cause misfortune to the person who displayed it.

Isn’t it interesting that we judge ourselves by our intentions and judge others by their actions. Now go seize the day with truth and honesty!

Do you have a behavior that you don’t like about yourself? When I wrote “The Art of Managing…, I was talking about our hidden Self…it’s the other side of us that we don’t want others to see. Working on Self as helps you rid those negative thoughts and feelings. “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert supports my belief. She says, “People who want to change behaviors or overcome fears, need only to vividly visualize themselves behaving in the desired way and eventually without conscious effort they will simply begin to behave differently.” I truly believe that when you replace those negative feelings and thoughts with positive, you inevitably end up helping everybody.

One of the most inspirational coaches today is Mike Robbins who lectures on personal growth, happiness and fulfillment. He wrote his first book, “Focus on the Good Stuff.” He states that we all have our doubts, fears, frustrations, anger. Acknowledge them. Then, make a list of what you want because our thoughts become things and we can choose our thoughts. Robbins says, “appreciating yourself, others, and life is the most important thing you can do to transform your life, improve your relationships and create the life you want.” I found his message similar to what I want others to know. It’s like ridding the negativity and stuff in your Toy Box, your Shadow, so that you will be able to respond to life rather than react to life, including creating the balanced life that you want.

“Slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects” is a quote from “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Their message teaches us an important lesson about other cultures and the importance of relationships which mirrors “The Art of Managing…How to Build a Better Workplace and Relationships” in that it is extremely important to understand and have caring and compassion for others.

Greg Mortenson, an American, committed out of passion to build a school for the children in Balti (Pakistan). Once construction began, he drove the workers hard without significant progress and built resentment from the workers. Haji Ali, a Baltistan, told him that if he wanted to thrive in Baltistan, he must respect their ways. Haji Ali said, “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honoree guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die.” Greg Mortenson learned an important lesson about other cultures. He followed this tradition and the workers accelerated productivity and completed the school in a relative short time.

What a great illustration of caring and compassion for others and serving others and the community.

According to Watson Wyatt Worldwide study, companies with highly committed employees tend to post sharply higher shareholder returns. Even though most companies do a good job recruiting employees, there is still some work to do about employee retention because it is expensive to replace employees. Two of the most important ingredients for running a successful business are hiring the most qualified person and showing caring and compassion. A trusting and respectful relationship is one of the most powerful drivers of employee commitment and is essential for building not only employee loyalty but also loyalty in our personal relationships.

The September 17, 2007, issues of Forbes magazine talks about Angela Braly who is the Chief Executive of health insurance giant Wellpoint. In this article she demonstrates caring and compassion for her employees. She preaches a concept called Mood Elevator where colleagues assess themselves from “Depressed” and “Angry-Hostile”, the lowest two floors, to “grateful” and “Wise-Insightful”, the highest two floors. To end meetings, she sometimes asks people to say where their mood elevator is. If too many are low, she extends the discussion so that nobody feels unloved. What a great example of caring and compassion for others.

America, founded by immigrants, is a nation of many cultures. Many immigrants today face the same obstacles as their predecessors. The important issue today for management is how to maximize and capitalize on workplace diversity. Diversity in the workplace is about understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating each person’s uniqueness. I look at diversity as peeling an onion. The outer layer can be multiple colors, shapes, sizes, but inside, most are the same…just like people. The goal to managing diversity is to develop and expand our capacity to accept, acknowledge, incorporate value, empower, and celebrate the different human talents among people whether they work in a large corporation or a small business because people are still the most important asset in a successful business.

Developing a clear vision of what you want and how to get there as described in The Art of Managing…How to Build a Better Workplace and Relationships is supported by “Talent is Never Enough” by John C. Maxwell. He says, “When people believe in themselves, they unleash power in themselves and resources around them that almost immediately take them to a higher level. Your potential is a picture of what you can become. Belief helps you see the picture and reach for it.” He also says, “Accomplishment is more than a matter of working harder and smarter. It’s also a matter of believing positively.” Believe in yourself and you will succeed.

It is my belief that the biggest reason managers, supervisors, and leaders fail is honesty — not being honest with themselves and others. John C. Maxwell wrote, “Talent is Never Enough” in which he believes that “pride is the cause of management failure — the pride that inflates your sense of self-worth and distorts your perception of reality.” Developing Self as described in “The Art of Managing…How to Build a Better Workplace and Relationships” leads to honesty with Self and authentic relationships with others.

Developing of Self appears to be on most people minds these days. Jane’s book gives step-by-step process to follow in the development of Self which leads to a better understanding of creating the lives that we most desire for ourselves. “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne reinforces this concept by saying that everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And, it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you’re holding in your mind. You become what you think most, but you also attract what you think most.