Let Sleepy Lies Lie

Your staff will lie to you. An article in Bloomberg Businessweek says it happens all the time. As if you didn’t already know that. The article says, “Most of the lying that happens at work is a simple matter of ass-covering.” As if you didn’t know that either. From your own lies, I mean.
     What to do about it?
     Many lies are harmless self-defenses. It doesn’t serve your interests to pressure the employee into admitting the falsehood. Gather what information you can about the problem, clarify your expectations about future actions, and move on. Let the lie just lie there. People will frequently change without ever admitting to others that they were wrong.
     But what if, in order to gather the information you need, you have to evaluate if the staff member is indeed lying and you want to push for the truth without pinning the employee to the wall? Here are some research-based tactics:

• Ask your questions in a situation in which the employee is likely to feel most comfortable. Preliminary research at University of Oxford, University of Bonn, and Germany’s Institute for the Study of Labor suggests that people are less likely to lie when they’re at home, for example. 
• Say, “Please be an honest person when talking with me about what happened.” Research at University of California-San Diego, London Business School, and Stanford University indicates this self-identity phrasing works better than, “Please be honest when talking with me about what happened.” 
• If possible, have the employee seated while you’re standing. In any case, raise your head slightly and extend your arms so your body occupies more space than usual. Columbia University researchers found that this makes it more difficult for an employee to lie to you. 
• Eyeball the eyes. Liars shift their gaze rapidly, or in an effort to control this sign, the liar will fix their gaze on something aside from your face and will resist looking elsewhere. 
• Ask brief questions that require the employee to tell events in an order different from the usual one. Researchers at University of Portsmouth in the UK and University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that asking people to tell a confabulated story, but with the events in reverse order, revealed the type of nervousness associated with lying. At best, the nervousness would motivate truth-telling. At least, it would alert you to be suspicious of what you’re being told. 

Click below for more: 
Lie in Wait for Lying Shoppers 
Identify When to Use Self-Identity Appeals