Building trust – It’s no secret
Most leaders would suggest that a degree of openness and trust with their employees constitutes being transparent, but beyond this there is another level at which the highest performing businesses operate - radical transparency. This is characterised by truthful interactions, not just within the business, but also with external stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and shareholders.
Demonstrate openness and this will stimulate the loyalty of your stakeholders, who will respect your honest approach. Conversely, withhold too much information and you risk breaking this trust. The truth has an unnerving ability of appearing at inopportune moments.
A limiting mindset – Curtain down
During my coaching, I characterise a leader’s approach in two ways. Whether they ‘keep the curtain up’ or ‘keep the curtain down.’
Curtain up: A transparent brand of leadership which allows the organisation’s stakeholders greater knowledge of how it is functioning and performing.
Curtain down: Restricting information to a small number of people who make decisions, without informing their stakeholders of their reasoning.
It might be case that some details are neither relevant nor appropriate to share, but generally, justifying your actions and keeping people ‘in the know’ is far more likely to increase engagement. If people feel they aren’t properly involved, why should they care about your company?
Beyond this, condensing accountability upon a few will result in increased pressure upon them. Whether these people are ‘control freaks’ or simply want the job done to the highest standard, this pressure will pay in the end. It’s no good for a person’s mental health to shoulder such insurmountable expectations.
A missing element – Owner mentality
It might seem noble to accept responsibility for so many tasks, but in fact, it excludes the other people involved. Meeting, or even surpassing, organisational targets might seem like the most desirable outcome, but unless your employees feel they have contributed, the likelihood is they won’t care.
The best businesses function like clockwork with every person playing an integral part and knowing this is the case.
The ideal scenario is where employees have an ‘owner mentality;’ this means they dedicate themselves to the job as if they owned the company. Whilst this might sound like an extreme example, trying to cultivate a culture of accountability, where every person takes pride in their role, should be your aim. Businesses that lack this ethos tend to see substandard effort and a high turnover of staff.
The key to preventing this happening is sharing the load.
A different perspective – Nothing but the truth
As I mentioned earlier, instilling transparency, not just internally but externally too will be beneficial to your business. You don’t have to tell your customers about the missteps your company has made, but if you are running low on a certain resource, or you have more than the usual people off sick from work, explain how this might affect your offering and how you intend to resolve this.
Some might argue that this approach runs the risk of making excuses, however, I would suggest as long this doesn’t happen regularly, people are more likely to accept the minor inconvenience. It’s easy to tell if someone is misleading you and nothing is more damaging to a relationship.
Be truthful in your marketing material too. Let your potential customers know who your product/service is for. If you are trying to sell to everyone, you’re bound to be dissatisfying at least some of the people for whom your offering is ill suited. Keeping your marketing clear and concise is likely to attract not just more trade, but more of the right kind of trade.
Embed transparency into each aspect of your organisation and this will to underpin healthy symbiotic relationships. Achieve this and you can look forward to less pressured leadership, more productive employees and long-term customers.
Radical transparency is the best policy.