How the Best Leaders Cultivate Truth and Candor
Every day we are inundated in information, articles, and social media shares about leadership and its relationship to organizational performance and culture. One thing we don’t hear as much about is leadership and its role in creating a climate of truth in the organization. It caused me to think about organizations and leaders I have known who are or have been the best at cultivating honesty. The challenge is this: in some organizations, the higher you are in the hierarchy, the less you know about the real truth related to processes and performance. So, it is vitally important to have channels of information open, so that issues can be addressed and problems solved. With many of our organizations operating in the Work from Home (WFH) and Work from Anywhere (WFA) environment open channels of communication and candor are perhaps more important now in the than they have ever been.
The best leaders I know foster an atmosphere of truth-telling in many ways, demonstrating five key behaviors:
1. They truly reward and/or recognize truth-telling in meetings and in one-one-one conversations. If employees know of a process, system, or organizational problem, they are expected to let it be known so that it can be fixed. Varying points of view are expected and asked for. Renegades and devil’s advocates are invited and encouraged. People are publicly praised for telling the truth, even when it’s bad news. The key principle is this: if we hide bad news, we cannot uncover the real problem, much less fix it. These leaders press teams with open ended questions, inquiring “How can we do this better?” In fact, they build it into many meetings as part of process improvement and lean.
2. They set realistic, yet challenging goals and work expectations for people, processes, and productivity. You might be wondering “what does this have to do with creating an environment of honesty and respect?” When you get to the third tip, below, you’ll see what I mean. In the most effective leaders I see, setting realistic goals and clear work expectations means that they cultivate a strong communication environment, often openly and candidly soliciting input from the people in the process before setting expectations because the people in the process know it the best. These leaders also understand that a goal that is realistic for one person may be so overwhelming to another that it becomes a de-motivator. Leadership must be circumspect in uncovering and addressing this challenge, or it undermines itself. Is one department, team, or shift filled with “all-stars” while another is not? Why is that? How can we possibly expect level and consistent performance if we stack the deck in that way? Is it a hiring issue? Perhaps a team was originally put together for an at-risk process? We should set the stage for realistic, consistently-repeatable excellence.
3. They align punishment/reward appropriately with goals and expectations. If consequences are too harsh when weighed against the goal or expected performance, employees may focus more attention on avoiding the punishment (or covering up the truth) than on fixing the problem. One location in a global manufacturing organization so feared the wrath of their top leader, they hid their “defective” work on the roof, forgetting that the CEO might be flying in by helicopter. On the other hand, if accountability for poor performance is too weak (or not present at all, which is a recent complaint of employees), you’ll get a lot of poor performance. Striking a balance is key. The number one complaint I hear from employees in client organizations this year in the midst of COVID is that employers do not hold people accountable for poor performance or toxic behaviors.
4. They reward, recognize, and give positive feedback more than negative (without being disingenuous). These “best leaders” lead by getting to know people. They solicit employee input. They give praise when due. When your employees know that you have a one on one meeting set, do they assume it is good news or bad? What have you done to contribute to that belief? Strong leaders, building a truthful environment, know how to effectively strike the balance between critical and positive feedback, keeping the door open for candor in return. In our current WFH or hybrid environments, that may mean improving your expertise in the technologies being used by your organization. See this article from HBR for ideas on technologies leaders need to know.
5. When they solicit input, they listen, apply what they can, and communicate about the plans, solutions, and implementations that are based on that input. These leaders follow through. If they put together task forces to address issues, they listen to them. If you solicit input and want to keep that idea-sharing coming from employees, follow through.
There are a host of other practices for encouraging the truth in your organization, but these five attributes stand out in leaders in some of the best organizations I have served.
For more information on improving effectiveness in your organization, please contact us at through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/transformingorganizations or at [email protected].
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