Honesty is a behaviour, not a value, according Dominic Thurbon, co-founder of Alchemy Labs Australia. Here, the speaker and author explains what this means for EAs navigating it daily.
Everyone says honesty matters. Research consistently finds it’s one of the most sought-after qualities in colleagues and leaders alike, and it appears as a stated corporate value in more than 65% of organisations. Yet only 19% of staff trust that their leaders are actually telling the truth.
The gap between valuing honesty and practising it is where most organisations live. And it’s a gap that EAs sit right in the middle of. You’re fielding information from all directions, managing up, translating between teams, and often being the first to know when something isn’t quite right.
The question worth asking isn’t whether you believe honesty is important. It’s whether you’re actively doing it.
Honesty is a set of behaviours, not a belief
An honest culture can boost financial performance by more than 20% and organisations with genuine integrity systems in place can see improvements beyond 40%. But none of that comes from having honesty on a values poster. It comes from three specific behaviours.
- Seeking the truth
This means being curious enough to ask good questions and sceptical enough not to accept the first answer. It doesn’t need to be combative; just inquisitive. If someone tells you a project is on track, the honest response is to ask what gives them that confidence.
In an EA role, this plays out constantly – in briefings, in status updates, in conversations between teams where the full picture isn’t always offered upfront.
- Speaking the truth
This is having the courage to raise the things that need raising, even when it’s uncomfortable. One of the most common unsaid truths in organisations is that something or someone isn’t working. EAs are often aware of these realities before anyone else.
Speaking up requires psychological safety, but it also builds it: when people aren’t running around reading between the lines, trust increases.
It’s also worth noting that one of the most important things anyone can say out loud is “I don’t know.” There’s nothing weak about it.
One senior engineering executive I spoke with put it this way – whenever he’s talking with his team, he works from the assumption that he’s wrong and aims to leave each conversation a little less wrong. That’s a useful mindset in any direction of communication.
- Hearing the truth
This is the one most often overlooked. Many people are far more comfortable speaking honestly about others than receiving honesty about themselves.
For EAs who act as a conduit between executives and their teams, creating space for honest feedback to move in both directions is part of the role – and one of its most valuable contributions.
Like sunscreen, truth either works or it doesn’t. The SPF rating on the label is irrelevant if the product doesn’t deliver. Stating that you value honesty is irrelevant if the behaviours aren’t there.
The EAs who make truth happen in their organisations (by asking better questions, saying the harder things and staying open to feedback) are doing something that has a measurable impact on the teams around them.