HBR Blog Network: The Data’s In: Honesty Really Does Start at the Top

“We have found the top managers in an organization create a ceiling — that is, leaders the next level down tend to be rated lower than their managers on every leadership dimension — and that includes their honesty and integrity. In other words, levels of honesty are set at the top and can only go downhill from there…”

“It’s hard to reach the 90th percentile in anything, of course, and honesty is no different. So when we ran across one of those exceptional individuals (who hit the elusive 90th percentile mark on his ratings for honesty and integrity), we wanted to have a word with him…Explaining just what a difficult feat it is to receive feedback marks that remarkably high, we asked him: “What is your secret?” After all, it’s not like in his role he hadn’t confronted his share of temptation or hard trade-offs.

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