Every leader tells a white lie every now and then, right? Perhaps—but that doesn’t make it OK. White lies can do serious damage to your reputation and can lead to much bigger issues down the road. Read on to see why cleaning up your act can help save your business.

Picture this: It’s 4:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon at the end of an exhausting week. You’ve finally reached a good stopping place with your work, and everything seems on track for a clean break when 5 p.m. rolls around. Then the phone rings. You glance at your caller ID screen and cringe. It’s your most talkative client, the long-winded one who typically calls “just to chat” and keeps you occupied for an hour or more.

So what do you do? Take the call and resign yourself to a late start on the weekend? Or do you have your receptionist tell him you’ve already left for the day so you can deal with him on Monday?

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