I have never met a CEO who doesn’t say honesty is important.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t say honesty is important.

Across cultures, one of the most consistent research findings is people show a strong stated preference for truth.

In fact, truthfulness is rated as one of the most sought after and respected qualities in people.

Words such as honesty and integrity are the most commonly recurring corporate values (appearing in more than 65 per cent of them).

A curious shame it is, then, that only 19 per cent of staff trust their leaders are telling the truth.

They’re right to be sceptical; research shows that most of us lie every day, with some findings suggesting 60 per cent of people lie once every 10 minutes.

In the most recent US election, fact checking found only 3 per cent of Donald Trump’s statements were true, and only around 12 per cent of Kamala Harris.

Everyone says truth matters – but we all lie all the time.

And so, I ask you this: are you a truthful leader?

Not a leader who says truth is important – everyone says that – but a leader who seeks, speaks and hears the truth?

It’s an important question – because it turns out that doing truth, rather than valuing it, is somewhat of a leadership superpower.

Truth offers no value as a value

Truth is powerful and profitable.

An honest culture can boost financial performance by more than 20 per cent, and having real systems in place which promote ‘integrity management’ can boost it by more than 40 per cent.

And 76 per cent of staff says the honesty of a business affects their decisions on where to work.

Research reveals strong links between truth-telling and innovation, for example, where teams with robust cultures of speaking the truth innovate faster and better.

But none of these benefits accrue because people ‘value’ truth. The benefits accrue when people behave truthfully.

That is the critical distinction.

Making truth happen in practice comes down to three simple behaviours; it has nothing to do with values, and everything to do with actions.

The first behaviour is seeking the truth.

This involves being curious enough to ask good questions, and sceptical enough to not believe the first answer you get.

This need not be combative – merely inquisitive.

As a simple example, if you’re leading a team and someone gives you a status update which says, “we’re on track”, seeking the truth is merely asking the next question – something like, how sure are you about that and could you point me towards some indicators which give you that confidence?

The second behaviour is speaking the truth.

This involves having the courage (and capability) to have the most important conversations – even when they’re unpleasant.

One of the most common unsaid truths in organisations is “you are not performing”.

Often, despite knowing that the conversation needs to happen, leaders find reasons or excuses not to have it; to avoid speaking the truth.

Breaking down barriers to these honest conversations requires psychological safety and trust – and it is useful to note that those things work both ways.

Honesty doesn’t only require psychological safety, its presence also builds it, because people aren’t running around scared of what’s unsaid, or spending all their time “reading between the lines”.

Lest you think speaking the truth might come across as arrogant, note one of the most important truths leaders should regularly speak out loud is “I don’t know” – and there is certainly nothing arrogant about that.

I was recently talking to the executive manager of a very large, high-performing engineering function, and he remarked “whenever I’m speaking with front line engineers, I work from the presumption I’m wrong, and I aim to leave the conversation less wrong”.

The third behaviour is hearing the truth.

This humble, vulnerable aspect of making truth happen is often forgotten, but its power is hard to overstate.

In my experience, many leaders are more comfortable speaking the truth about others than they are hearing it about themselves.

Truthful leaders address that imbalance.

Of course, the most useful tool for this is feedback – after all, the only way a leader knows the truth about their impact is honest and robust feedback.

You’re either doing it or you’re not

When it comes to making truth happen, preferences and values are irrelevant – we’re either doing it or we’re not.

If you want to harness the power truth offers to your business and your team, it’s not about making truth more important, it’s about doing truth more frequently.

When it comes to truthful leaders, their superpower isn’t attitude, it’s action.

Dominic Thurbon is an experienced senior executive, successful entrepreneur, and globally engaged author and speaker. He is director and co-founder at Alchemy Labs Australia. His latest book, To Be Honest: How making truth happen builds better businesses, lives and societies, is available now. Find out more at www.domthurbon.com