The Thief in Your Company

This is the eighth in a series of posts about what I have learned from my authors.

TL;DR: The lesson I learned from coaching Tiffany while she wrote her book: Take away the opportunities to be taken advantage of.

I believe that most people are good. It’s one reason I love to travel. I like to visit other countries and experience them as they actually are, rather than stay at home and be frightened about them by the media (as the media likes to do—after all, “if it bleeds it leads”). So far I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the shared humanity and willingness people have to help each other.

Tiffany Couch has, if not a different perspective, at least a different experience. As a forensic accountant, she helps investigate financial crimes. In The Thief in Your Company she shows how, time and again, businesses are taken advantage of by the people they trust the most. That kindly bookkeeper who’s been here forever? That friendly cashier? That trustworthy business manager? Yeah—not so much.

People steal for a variety of reasons and use many internal justifications to do so. Too often the thieves are people you trust, stealing right under your nose. I never quite understood what Ronald Reagan meant when he said, “Trust, but verify,” because those are contradictory impulses. But that’s what Tiffany is getting at. It’s possible to trust people and also not to tempt them. Put in safeguards. Take away temptation. Make it clear that you, or someone, is watching the money. Help people do the right thing.

Because after all, people are good—or trying to be.

Tiffany’s book: https://lnkd.in/eUcw6zTj