People trust you when they find you reliable. But there’s a world of meaning in the word “reliable.” Reliability need not be a positive thing. A gang of bank robbers can be reliable in the sense that none will rat on their fellows should their robbery attempt be foiled. They will also be reliable in that they will remain consistently dishonest to those outside the gang, however remain true and truth-telling to fellow gang members. In this sense, “reliable” can mean both consistently dishonest (to outsiders) and completely honest (to insiders). Lo, what a wide swath of organizational behavior such considerations envelope.
Now it is often assumed that a God-fearing man will be of highest integrity and reliability. Note immediately that integrity and reliability need not dovetail. Does one think for a moment that the establishment of the day found Jesus reliable? Obviously not. He was most unreliable from an establishment point of view laying bare its rank hypocrisy. However integrity in the sense of being faithful to himself and his Heavenly Father, Jesus certainly had to the max. But it was his very God-fearing nature and integrity that insured his unreliability and untrustworthiness.
We must recognize a simple fact, a principal reason people are passed over for advancement (even acceptance) in organizations is that they telegraph too much integrity and not enough reliability.
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