How to Spot A Liar @Work?

As leaders, we empower our teams, delegate certain key responsibilities and rely on them to help us make thoughtful decisions. Most of them repay our trust with truthfulness. But sometimes, we’re faced with employees who bend the truth too far, or who lie to us outright. This is one of the toughest leadership or managerial situations to face, especially when our direct reports and colleagues communicate to us in person or virtually. It’s especially easier to hide gestures and expressions on video calls. 

In this article, we will primarily focus on how we can detect or identify that one of our colleagues, direct reports is lying to us. For the vast majority of the individuals we work with, the act of lying triggers a heightened stress response. And these signs of stress and anxiety are obvious, if you know where to look. Basically, what we’re finding is that the mind has to work a lot harder to generate a false response. One theory – posed by Daniel Langleben, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania – is that, in order to tell a lie, the brain first has to stop itself from telling the truth and then create the deception, and then deal with the accompanying emotions of guilt, anxiety, and the fear of being caught.

To increase your chances of spotting a falsehood, watch for a cluster of body language cues that include:

1. Micro-expressions

When the lie is planned (and rehearsed), deceivers start their answers more quickly than truth-tellers. If taken by surprise, however, the liar takes longer to respond – as the process of inhibiting the truth and creating a lie takes extra time. It is very difficult to catch, but if you ever spot a fleeting expression that contradicts a verbal statement, believe what you see and not what you hear.

In most instances, such people go on and on with their speech, with no head and tail, no impact. In other words, their speeches or addresses are dragged, sometimes meaningless, irrelevant and not to the point. In short, they are all over the place. If you want to summarize what the person said during his/her speech, the answer would be nothing. 

2. Inconsistent in Discourses 

Some people play safe. They have a fixed pattern of lying. In most cases, they play their years’ old tapes and repeat what they always say, at least some old phrases at start or at the end, so they don’t have to invent yet another brand-new LIE.  When a person believes what s/he is saying her/his gestures and expressions are in alignment with his/her words i.e. s/he is demonstrating Incongruence. 

When you see a mismatch – where gestures contradict words – such as a side-to-side head shake while saying “yes” or a person frowning and staring at the ground while telling you s/he is happy, it’s a sign of deceit or at least an inner conflict between what that person is thinking and saying.

3. Changes in gestures

A person’s nose may not grow when s/he tells a lie, but watch closely and you’ll notice that when someone is about to lie or make an outrageous statement, s/he’ll often unconsciously rub his nose.Often times, in the effort not to let their gestures "give away" the lie, deceivers will hold their bodies unnaturally stiff and still. At other times, especially after being asked a searching question, you may notice liars accelerate pacifying gestures - biting their lips, rubbing their hands together, fidgeting with jewelry, touching their hair.

When lying, people will often display nervousness and anxiety through increased foot movements. Feet will fidget, shuffle and wind around each other or around the furniture. They will stretch and curl to relieve tension, or even kick out in a miniaturized attempt to run away.

4. A Fake Smile

Another visible sign of a liar’s discomfort is the plastic or fake smile. Since corporate or political leaders are somehow in public eye and they are expected to look calm and composed in front of their people or public, yet they pretend to wear a smile, which, in most cases, is a fake one, even if they have to break a bad news. 

It’s hard for liars to give a real smile while seeking to deceive. Real smile crinkle the corners of the eyes and changes the entire face. Fake smile involves the mouth only. The best way to tell if a smile is fake is to look for a lack of movement of the muscles surrounding the outer corners of the eye (the “crows’ feet”).

5. Eye Contact & Change in Blink Rate

When someone is telling you a lie, they will often find it difficult to look you directly in the eye. To avoid eye contact they may rub their eyes. Men will rub their eyes briskly or look down when lying. Women are more likely to rub below their eyes or stare up whilst lying. A person's blink rate slows down as s/he decides to lie and stays low through the lie. Then it increases rapidly (sometimes up to eight times normal rate) after the lie.

One of the biggest body language myths about liars is that they avoid eye contact. In fact, many liars, especial the most brazen, may actually over-compensate (to prove that they are not lying) by making too much eye contact and holding it too long.

Final Caveat

According to Albert Mehrabian, a psychologist at University of California, USA, approximately 93 percent of communication is nonverbal, while words account for only 7 percent. Tone of voice makes up 38 percent of communication. This makes Body Language a significantly important subject for those who are heavily involved in interacting and communicating with people due to their professions. 

In business dealings, the best way to understand someone’s baseline behavior is to observe her over an extended period of time. Note his/her speech tone, gestures, blinking patterns, etc. Once you’ve assessed what is “normal” for a co-worker, you will be able to detect shifts, when his/her body language is “out of character.” Just remember (and this is key), that the typical signals you detect may be signs of lying - or a state of heightened anxiety caused by many other factors. To avoid all this waste of time, train your teams once and for all that they have to be honest and clearly admit that they don't know the answers or they come back soon with a correct answer.

Suggested reading: 

Why Nonverbal Communication Matters in the Workplace?

How Body Language helps in our Lives?

5 Communication Mistakes We All Make.  

About the Author

Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth. 

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