Honesty is not a word concerning which everyone attaches the same meaning in mind.

From VTT: Is honesty recognized in an intended act of truth-telling when the listener/reader senses some much-prized quality is infused in it? That quality might be widely recognized as admirable in what has come to be termed one’s support community, or it might be a value in which one individually believes passionately.

For example, many a woman from mainstream English-speaking cultures considers that honesty is not present unless she can recognize in her interlocutor enough sincerity of intention toward herself or others in her support community to meet her standards of “normality”; and many a man in these cultures considers that honesty is not present unless he can recognize in the presentation an intention to manifest standards of included relevance and precision that meet what he believes is his “entitlement” in the circumstances for useful information.

These findings are not, however, immediately obvious to everyone, so no one need consider either self or me weird if s/he should have a moment or two of disconcerting askance. Indeed, the gender distinction I refer to here is likely to be more prevalent amongst older generations today than in younger. Since the distinction arose, so I believe, from centuries, if not millennia, of men spending most of their energies in more public venues and women spending theirs in more domestic ones, it could be that, with these patterns changing dramatically in our era, the distinction might in younger generations today be disappearing.

Whatever may be the particular assumptions or presumptions, dear Reader, common in your community of origin or support as to what constitutes genuine honesty, please remember that honesty always contains an element of honour and/or sincerity that candour does not. Consider, therefore, the following idea as a possibility for good communications practice: discover how the person or community to which you will next be speaking or writing differentiates between honesty and candour, and then do both the inner and the outer inquiry work of expanding your own comprehension of truth to include some partial merit in the sense of honesty that this person or community holds to be admirable.

In the four clients of Authentix Coaches' value-mission-vision coaching work so far (Feb 2008), the following "aspirational ladder of self-discipline" has in each case been adopted:

Honesty – the discipline of avoiding either inaccuracy or deception and of being reciprocally open about intentions.