Practice Notes

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Are Powerful People Better Liars?

Have you seen Lie to Me on the TV? It’s an interesting, albeit Hollywood, version of how our body language gives us away.

Well, now researchers from Columbia Graduate School of Business have found that people in powerful positions, ie, our leaders, lie more easily than workers.

They argue that leaders’ sense of power protects them from the stress of lying and they are better able to suppress the signals we send when we’re lying. So, what are those signals?

Speech: liars use more syllables per second at a higher pitch. They also repeat words and sentences more.

Shoulders: liars shrug more, but in trying to suppress the shrug, produce a distinct half-shrug.

Eyes: liars’ pupils dilate.

Mouth: liars press their lips together and involuntary smirk when they think they have convinced others of their lie.

The researchers reckon that only about 50% or 60% of us can accurately tell if others are lying. So, if senior people are good at lying it looks like they’re getting away with it a fair bit of the time!

If you want to follow this up in more detail, check out the May 2010 Harvard Business Review article, Powerful People are Better Liars.

Storytelling, Metaphor and One Team

Think One Team, by Graham Winter (2008) Jossey-Bass, Queensland is a useful read. He’s putting forward how to get a team to work together and suggest some valuable tactics.

Telling a story. He uses the story of the Han Dynasty in China when the country was dividedup into three smaller kingdoms. Each developed their own laws and ways of life. This built strong local communities, but nearly led to the loss of China’s culture for this period.

Using metaphor. China’s three kingdoms are of course a metaphor for silos within businesses.

Winter then puts forward five practices to defeat ‘three kingdoms’ thinking.

Think three kingdoms (silos)

Pursue other agendas

Avoid and deny

Stifle communication

Look after your own turf

Play: I win, you lose

Think strong Chinese culture (one team)

Share the big picture

Share the reality

Share the air

Share the load

Share the wins and losses

 

We reckon it’s well worth a read.