Transparent vs. Tight-Lipped: The Leader’s Dilemma
Trust is integral to leadership. Effectively serving a team, organization, or community as a leader requires the ability to cultivate their trust in you. And while trust is built through transparency, certain situations sometimes require you to hold back certain information until it is truly helpful and useful. So, how do you navigate this balancing act and maintain meaningful relationships within your broader organization and community?
In this article, I’ll offer three tips for leaders seeking to balance the need for transparency without causing unnecessary chaos during turbulent times. I’ll also leave you with a question to reflect on when it comes to your own leadership.
When transparency wreaks havoc
The news of Silicon Valley Bank’s closure is not only a lesson for the banking sector—it’s also a lesson in leadership and communication. In case you’re not up to speed, here’s a quick anecdote for context.
In March, CNN reported that an anonymous employee was “dumbfounded by how the CEO publicly acknowledged the extent of the bank’s financial troubles before privately lining up the necessary financial support to ride out the storm.” The employee was quoted as saying the leadership team’s “transparency and forthright-ness did them in.”
I’m not here to comment on whether the CEO made the right move—but what is compelling about this story is the question it begs: Did the CEO choose to share the financial information because he was under stress, or was it a strategic move? Herein lies the lesson for leaders.
Assess your reasoning before you share
I often advise my clients that when you’re taking an action, it’s critical to understand whether you’re moving toward a particular outcome or away from one.
Facts create thoughts, thoughts create emotions, and emotions drive actions. When leaders aren’t emotionally attuned to the story they’re telling themselves about the facts, they can take actions that are not in service to the team, organization, or community because their emotional override is in control.
💡 We must always ask ourselves whether we’re sharing information to move away from a state of stress or to move toward a situation that will have a positive impact on our stakeholders. The reality is, discussing challenges will likely trigger the emotions of certain team or community members. Your role as a leader is to think critically and strategically about the value of sharing negative information. I’ve included a few reflection questions later on to help you do exactly that.
3 tips for leaders to share information strategically
1. Focus on building relationships
As a leader, this is something you should always be doing. When you have strong, trustworthy relationships, you will be better positioned to deliver sensitive information when the time inevitably comes to do so.
For example, if you need to communicate about the likelihood of layoffs, you’ll receive an entirely different reaction from your stakeholders depending on whether or not they trust you. No one will like the reality of the situation, but people’s trust in you will determine how they will respond to it.
If you haven’t taken the time to earn their trust, your motivations and credibility will be called into question. This could result in staff disengaging from their work, or worse, a mass exodus of top talent. On the other hand, while employees still won’t be happy to hear the news even if they do trust you, they will be more confident in your ability to navigate the situation with fairness and the least negative impact possible.
2. Balance facts and emotions in your delivery
Leaders often want to stick to the facts when delivering bad news, but they don’t necessarily consider the ways in which the information could be triggering to all recipients. This approach fails to address the emotional whirlwind stakeholders experience in the wake of bad news.
Going back to the layoff example, this kind of news can even have an impact on people whose jobs are “safe” because those individuals may worry they’ll have more work on their plates after the layoffs. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to help allay some of the concerns that result from the emotional reaction to bad news. Here are a few statements you could use in this scenario:
“I know you might be wondering how this will affect your workload. Here’s our plan to ensure you’re all supported during this time.”
“I recognize that each of you already has a job to do. No one is going to have to take on a second role, but we may ask you to help with onboarding some of the temporary support staff we’re bringing in to navigate this transition.”
“It’s completely understandable to feel unsettled right now. Layoffs are not an easy thing for any organization or team. I’m going to walk through how we plan to get through this together, then I want to take as much time as we need to answer your questions.”
It’s also essential that after you deliver negative information, people have access to safe, confidential spaces where they can talk through their concerns.
3. Check your motivations
As I mentioned earlier, if you are triggered by a situation and you’re operating from less of a critical thinking standpoint and more of an emotional stress standpoint, you need to pause and analyze the motivations behind your decision making. Otherwise, you could risk inadvertently creating chaos and dissention.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
What am I trying to achieve by sharing this information?
In reality, what is sharing this information going to accomplish?
How does sharing this information impact me? (This last question isn’t meant to be selfish; it’s meant to identify whether there is a personal need you’re satisfying emotionally that you need to check).
How will sharing this information impact those around me?
As a leader, the people who depend on you should be able to trust that you’re being honest with key information, your intentions, and organizational goals. However, your job is also to stay calmer than everyone else in a crisis. It’s not an easy task, but with the right tools, you can learn to walk the line between transparent and tight-lipped. Get in touch with me to find out how I can help.
P.S., I’d love to know: In the Silicon Valley Bank situation, would you have shared the information?