Discretion is really the better part of business

When Falstaff said "The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life" in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One he positioned himself as a leading business consultant of our day if not his own.

Discretion is more than a way to protect a personal or market position, it is an attribute than can expand them, even at it encourages trust. In the pre-digital age of Elizabethan England, it was pretty easy to be discrete. After all, there was little heard beyond earshot and the social hierarchy held (except, perhaps, at the Globe Theater) each to his own. As those barriers wore down over time and media has become ubiquitous, it now sometimes seems as if private thoughts are accessible in real-time to anyone interested.

In this kind of few-rules, no-barrier-to-entry, whatever-can-be-said-will-be-heard open air market, discretion has become an even more valuable attribute in business than it is among friends. That's because one may only need a few good friends to have a full life, but it takes a legion to build a business.

It begins with the "a ha" moment that triggers a business plan and leads to a search for seed money. At any point in the chain, saying too much or too easily can unravel the opportunity. Then with the money in the bank, there are people to be hired, space to be rented and distribution partners to be seduced. Again, at any point in the chain, the right thing said at the wrong time can alert competitors and stall a new initiative.

Finally, with product "rolling off the assembly line," attention turns to customer relationships, market expansion and business model "tweaks" that can drive growth on the top and bottom lines. It may be that the discussions that take place in advance of a decision on these matters are the most valuable. It is why the small groups that run most companies don't easily or often change their membership.

And the value of discretion does not stop there. When the subject is a potential merger or acquisition, when the business plan calls for shifting or building plants or, maybe especially, when hiring, firing or personnel re-assignment are on the agenda, if the conversation can’t be held in confidence, it will not end well. It will be too closely held, too quickly decided and too narrowly reviewed.

Of course, if discretion were common among us, all this would be less of a worry. But as we have moved to a fully-formed, information-based services economy, what each of us knows is the most important measure of our professional value and self-worth. Hard to keep that kind of light under a bushel.

Unless, of course, you are willing to protect the business you are helping to build. In fact, it is that last bit – “the business you are helping to build” – that is the essential element to discretion. And it has less to do with the values of employees than it does the values of the company.

Companies with a clear and valuable mission, a consistent and supportive set of values, a set of products and services to which the market clearly responds, a willingness to listen and act on what it hears, an equitable rewards systems that still recognizes individual contribution and a management track record of making all the right moves are staffed by among the most discrete people and teams. Until there is a slip or two in any quarter which becomes a cause for concern and, in turn, leads to upsetting the balance between personal ambition and corporate mission.

No wonder Falstaff drank.