Honesty means much more than just telling the truth. It encompasses a range of behaviors that contribute to a person’s integrity and make them a desired and valuable associate and team member. When you are not completely forthcoming, your team members pay the price. Being dishonest even in the really small things is a terrible weakness and will end up costing you and your team in the long run.
Most importantly, being honest builds trust, which is key to creating a professional and successful work environment. Transparency and open communication are essential and this begins with top management. MK’s leadership must foster this environment and ensure everyone feels free to respectfully provide suggestions, ideas, and solutions without fear of reprisal.
Honest associates are accountable and reliable. They take ownership of their work and their mistakes and don’t try to pass the buck. Because Truckers are essentially working remotely, no one is looking over your shoulders to make sure you’re doing everything correctly. An easy way to show honesty and build trust is to report when things happen, even the mistakes; this is how we learn and improve. Remember, mistakes are to be taken in the context of a process, policy, or procedure, not in a personalized or demeaning manner.
A new initiative to improve and reduce physical damage to the equipment is underway. This requires Drivers to routinely submit inspection reports noting any damage to the tractor or trailer before heading out on your shift. For us to improve, we need to understand what happened so we can try to prevent it from recurring. Equipment damage is costly and means there is work to do to improve. The first recommendation is to be more conscientious, deliberate, and careful with tight maneuvers and backing.
Get Out & Look is the tiresome old slogan, but it is time-tested and effective.
Next, we will undertake a statistical analysis of frequency and severity of the damage and then determine what is needed to reduce and improve. We will share these results and continuously update our processes. This is how we find strength in being honest.