Are you getting accurate data from your executive team?

Between the standard inaccuracies and time lag you’ll encounter with most reporting methods, reports are never going to be right on the money. A new study, however, suggests that executives may be cooking the books more than you might have thought.

According to a report by CEO.com and Domo, a whopping 46 percent of executives admit to massaging data before it’s handed off to the CEO. That means that nearly half of business executives are misreporting the numbers.

CEOs are master storytellers: they know how to tease out a narrative about the company from the various pieces of data they receive from their executive team. When pieces of that story don’t match up, however, CEOs don’t have the information they need to run the company. Which executives can they trust?

In order to be successful, a company’s CEO needs to be armed with accurate data so he or she can tell the real story, not the rosiest story.

Get the entire survey report here.