The Reference Call

The Situation

Six weeks ago you fired your VP of Sales. The board deck said three missed quarters; the truth you carry is heavier and messier — he had stopped grinding, coasted on two legacy accounts, and let a couple of good reps walk out the door behind his indifference. There was expense sloppiness too, the kind you noticed and never formally raised. Nothing criminal. A man in a bad season. This morning a founder you respect calls: your former VP is the finalist for their chief revenue seat, and the founder wants it straight — would you hire him again? You know what a warm reference launches and what a cold one buries. You also know things the man himself was never confronted with, and one or two things that are simply not yours to hand around.

The Question

How much of the truth do you owe the founder — and how much of it is his to have?

COUNSEL

This is a matter of prudence, so here is the reasoning, and the judgment stays yours. Two duties pull against each other and both are real. Calumny — saying what is false — is closed to you absolutely. Detraction is subtler: disclosing a man's faults without objectively valid reason. But the founder has a valid reason for some of it — he is about to trust this man with his company, and the Catechism's rule cuts both ways: no one is bound to reveal truth to someone without the right to know it, which means some truth is rightly his, and some is not. A workable line: answer the question the seat asks. The coasting, the reps who left — that is CRO-relevant fact you can defend to the man's face. The expense sloppiness you never adjudicated, the bad season's private weather — that is not evidence; it is his reputation on your credit. And say what was true in his favor with the same precision, or the picture you give is false by omission.

The Warrant

Before Sundown

Before you return the call, write down the three sentences you would say with the man sitting in the room — facts you would sign, praise you can prove, and nothing you never raised with him. Say those, and stop.