Leadership Transparency
Trust is the glue that aligns leaders with their followers. Yet, employee surveys often reveal an underlying distrust of leadership. The disconnect comes as leaders often assume that trust is granted to them based on the position they hold in the organization. The opposite is often the case as employees have been taught to distrust leaders for good reason.
Leaders often act without fully vetting the implications of their actions for their employees. What appear to be edicts designed to organize and control work, often end up making life more difficult for the staff. To paraphrase Peter Drucker — So much of what we call management is found in making it more difficult for people to do their job. A leader that layers complexity and creates barriers in the high pursuit of managing their corner of the organization elicits distrust from their employees.
Trust is created between leaders and their team when the leader is transparent and accessible. Transparency without accessibility creates an entertaining yet incomplete relationship while accessibility without transparency creates an emotionless boss. When transparency is allowed to demonstrate concern on the part of the leader as well as a human element that is capable of failure, accessibility solidifies the relationship and creates a bond of trust.
Authentic leaders possess the self-awareness necessary to be transparently accessible in a manner that promotes employee trust and well-being. Have the courage to be transparent and accessible.
3 Comments on this post
Leave a CommentHey dude! I fully agree with your opinion. I’ve just shared it on Facebook.
Comment left on 11.25.2011 by Betsey Lorenzo
Love this article!! What would be some basic steps a leader should put into practice to make this happen?
Comment left on 12.24.2011 by Richard Lazarou
Richard – some steps to take to develop transparency:
1. Be yourself even if you are weak in an area. People respect someone who is trying to improve.
2. Laugh at your mistakes. Admit it to your team when you mess up.
3. Ask a few close team members to give you honest feedback on how you come across.
4. Understand that your organization will survive without you.
5. Avoid trappings of power and special privileges to avoid setting yourself apart.
6. Interact with everyone in the organization. Go out of your way to show concern and appreciation even for the little efforts that often go unnoticed.
7. Routinely tell your team what you are working on to improve and ask that they hold you accountable.
8. Keep a journal of interactions that didn’t go well and reflect on how you can improve the interaction next time. Review the journal periodically to remind yourself what you are working on and to recognize your accomplishments.
9. Make it a whole-life experience. Ask your friends and spouse to point out times you were not transparent. Be the same person at work and away.
10. Get in the habit of self-monitoring. Learn to spot your behaviors and patterns so you can change them before you act or speak.
Best of luck! Rod
Comment left on 12.24.2011 by admin
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