With all the corruption, fraud and financial crime taking place these days, it would seem that the saying, “Honesty is the best policy,” seems like sound advice, but if you really want to live a life of integrity, this saying may not be what you should be aiming at.

Honesty has become a scarce commodity these days. There are very few people who believe in and practise supreme honesty. There are people who believe that a lie is only a lie if you get caught out. They think that if you can get away with it, you’re simply very smart and good for you.

Never before in the history of mankind has there been a greater need for honesty. We need it in government, in business and in our homes. I bet that as you read those three aspects, you silently ticked the “that’s never going to happen” box for each of them.

Many politicians wouldn’t recognise honesty if it walked up to them and slapped them in the face. They’d probably think it was just a disgruntled voter! A large number of business leaders are not far behind when it comes to honesty, and things are not much better at a personal level either.

Of course, honesty doesn’t merely refer to financial honesty. It refers to relationships, emotions, purpose, intent, self reflection and many other aspects of our lives. Without honesty, however, there is no integrity, so people who are not honest lack integrity.

Without integrity there can be no trust, and without trust there will be no commitment – people generally do not commit to something or someone if they have reason not to trust them.

All of this means, therefore, that a lack of honesty, integrity and trust at a national and corporate level results in low productivity and low profitability.

Now, if you can’t be honest with yourself, you will never be honest with others, so the first person you to start assessing in terms of honesty is yourself. A lack of honesty with yourself may not be very obvious to you – after all, you’re fooling yourself – but it will probably be obvious to others. When it comes to a failure to be honest with oneself, Donald Trump is an excellent example. And, I have to say, all his die-hard fans suffer from the same malaise.

I have previously done business with someone in a senior position who never honoured his financial commitments to pay according to agreed payment terms. My Financial Manager would spend weeks and months calling his staff to get payments out of him. He doesn’t know it, but others have told me similar stories about him. One of these people has told me that, like me, he has simply stopped doing business with him now.

Sadly, this man is very proud of the fact that he is on his church’s council, but doesn’t realise that he has a reputation as a dishonest person who lacks integrity.

So why is honesty not the best policy? Because if it’s considered the BEST policy, you probably have a few other – less honest – policies. And that means you’re actually not an honest person, whether you want to admit it to yourself or not.

If you wish to build a reputation of integrity, don’t consider honesty to be the best policy. Consider it to be the ONLY policy by which you live and conduct business. When you start to do that, people will come to know that your word is your bond.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have leaders like that – in our country, in our companies and in our families? I urge you to become one of those leaders!

Alan Hosking is the Publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net and @HRFuturemag. He is an internationally recognised authority on leadership competencies for the future and teaches experienced and younger business leaders how to lead with empathy, compassion, integrity, purpose and agility. He has been an Age Management Coach for two decades and is the author of parenting best seller What Nobody Tells a New Father.