Encouraging Transparency In Leadership

Understanding what is true is essential for success, and being radically transparent about everything, including mistakes and weaknesses, helps create the understanding that leads to improvements. Being radically truthful and transparent with your colleagues and expecting your colleagues to be the same with you ensures that important issues are apparent instead of hidden. It also enforces good behavior and good thinking, because when you have to explain yourself, everyone can openly assess the merits of your logic. If you are handling things well, radical transparency will make that clear, and if you are handling things badly, radical transparency will make that clear as well, so it helps to maintain high standards. Radical truth and radical transparency are fundamental to having a real idea meritocracy. The more people can see what is happening—the good, the bad, and the ugly—the more effective they are at deciding the appropriate ways of handling things. This approach is also invaluable for training: Learning is compounded and accelerated when everyone has the opportunity to hear what everyone else is thinking. As a leader, you will get the feedback essential for your learning and for the continual improvement of the organization’s decision-making rules. And seeing firsthand what’s happening and why builds trust and allows people to make the independent assessments of the evidence that a functioning idea meritocracy requires. #principleoftheday

People can handle difficult truths. They cannot handle the feeling of being managed. Many leaders understands this intellectually but fewer act on it consistently. Instead, when a hard decision comes (e.g., a layoff, a reorg, a strategy reversal), leaders often default to holding back context, softening the rationale and attributing their own decisions to external forces. They do this thinking they're protecting their team but the team experiences something different: being managed. Recent Gartner research discussed in a really interesting Harvard Business Review article puts numbers to what I've been seeing in my work. Fewer than half of employees trust their senior leaders. And the damage comes from three specific behaviors: (1) Withholding context. "We can't get into the details right now." Trust drops 20%. (2) Deflecting accountability. "The market forced our hand." I've sat in rooms where a leader made a difficult decision for sound reasons and attributed it to someone else. Trust drops 30%. (3) Walking back commitments without acknowledgment. A public decision gets reversed without an explanation and a new direction is presented. Another 20%. What sits underneath all three is the same instinct: managing discomfort instead of sharing it. The same research found that employees are over 4x more likely to trust leaders who explain the "why" behind hard decisions, including what alternatives were considered and rejected. I interpret this to mean: Teams need their leaders to be transparent about the mess. Trust erodes in patterns, not in moments. And it rebuilds the same way: one honest conversation at a time. #trust #leadership #teams

"I only tell my boss the risks when I’m 100% sure, otherwise I’d rather keep quiet” - a manager recently told me during a workshop: Other managers started nodding - highly relatable. This is what psychology calls the MUM effect - Minimizing Unpleasant Messages coined by Rosen & Tesser (1970). It’s the deeply human tendency to avoid delivering bad news or to soften it until the truth is barely visible. - We do it to protect ourselves from blame. - We do it to protect others from discomfort. - And in the moment, silence feels safer than honesty. But here’s the cost: - Leaders make decisions without critical information. - Teams repeat the same mistakes. - Opportunities get lost. But here’s the paradox: what feels safe for the individual is unsafe for the team. Neuroscience explains why: when we prepare to share uncomfortable truths, the amygdala - the brain’s threat detection system - activates. It interprets honesty as danger: the risk of rejection, conflict, or loss of status. So silence feels like self-protection. How can leaders mitigate this effect? 👉 1. Redefine what “good” means in your team Say explicitly: “Being good here means raising risks early, even if you’re not 100% sure.” 👉 2. Reward the messenger, not just the message Thank people for speaking up, regardless of whether the risk turns out real. This rewires the brain to see honesty as safe. 👉 3. Ask better questions Replace “Any questions?” with “What’s the toughest risk we might be overlooking?” or “What would you challenge if you were in my seat?” ✨ This is exactly what I work on with leadership teams in my Safe Challenger program and workshops, helping leaders unlearn compliance-based leadership and build cultures of courage. Because the biggest risk in teams isn’t mistakes. It’s silence. P.S.: What’s do you think is harder: speaking up with uncomfortable truths or hearing them?

SMART goals don’t seem to work anymore. The approach that once seemed clear and effective is now falling short. Many organisations are realizing this: “It’s too rigid for today’s challenges.” “It doesn’t align teams in real time.” “It forces us to stay reactive instead of proactive.” These are the common challenges I’ve heard from leaders of Fortune 500 companies I’m currently working with. 📉 The business environment is more unpredictable than ever. 📅 Static goal-setting doesn’t address year-round adjustments. 🤝 Teams struggle with alignment across priorities. These concerns are valid. But they don’t mean we should abandon goal-setting altogether. Instead, it’s time to embrace FAST goals: ➤ FREQUENT discussions keep teams flexible and adaptive. ➤ AMBITIOUS targets inspire innovation and growth. ➤ SPECIFIC metrics ensure clarity and focus. ➤ TRANSPARENT tracking builds trust and alignment. Leaders who’ve adopted FAST goals are seeing real results. From sharper execution to better team engagement, the shift makes an impact. If you’re feeling stuck with outdated frameworks, consider starting with these steps: ❇️Hold regular goal check-ins. ↳ Discuss progress and adjust to new realities. ❇️Set bold yet achievable targets. ↳ Push yourself and your team beyond the status quo. ❇️Make tracking visible to everyone. ↳ Align efforts by keeping priorities clear and transparent. When goals become FAST, organizations don’t just survive. They thrive. What do you think- Is it time to rethink goal-setting in your organization? Catherine • ♻️ Share to inspire more. Connect with Catherine Li-Yunxia (Transforming leaders, Moving the world) to elevate CEO impact

Everyone is facing challenges right now. At the core, what we all want is to feel secure, supported, and capable of moving forward. The reality is, many are still navigating challenges: → Teams strained by constant change and uncertainty → Leaders juggling impossible priorities with limited resources → Employees grappling with burnout and the pressure to perform Here’s what people truly need: 1. Clarity of Purpose: People need leaders to articulate the “why” behind actions and decisions, especially in uncertainty, so teams can focus on what truly matters. 2. Psychological Safety: Leaders must create an environment where team members feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and express concerns without fear of judgment or retaliation. 3. Support for Vulnerability: Encouraging openness, admitting mistakes, and modeling vulnerability helps teams navigate challenges together. 4. Shared Accountability: Leaders need to ensure that responsibility is shared, not just top-down, so the team feels collectively committed to results. 5. Guidance in Conflict: Leaders should coach teams to embrace constructive conflict and ask the hard questions (“What’s not being said?”) rather than avoiding tension. 6. Consistency and Presence: In hard times, people need leaders who are visible, engaged, and steady, providing reassurance through consistent actions. 7. Empowerment for Growth: Leaders should continue to invest in people’s development, even under pressure, showing that growth and learning remain priorities. 8. Trust in the Team: People need leaders who trust them to make decisions and take ownership, rather than micromanaging during crises. 9. Transparent Communication: Sharing as much information as possible, even if imperfect, helps people understand the reality of the situation and reduces fear of the unknown. 10. Commitment to Co-Elevation: Leaders must demonstrate that even in hard times, the team’s success and growth matter as much as individual goals, lifting each other up together. This is the kind of leadership that makes a real difference.

"This isn't just about hitting numbers, it's about creating shared understanding, fostering collaboration across teams, and helping people see how their work connects to the bigger picture." Molly Sands, PhD and I geeked out about culture, processes and systems for company goals. Goal setting and management might seem like a mundane topic, but I think it's the biggest driver of organizational alignment. Three key traits from Atlassian's approach: 1️⃣ Focus: Three to five measurable goals per team, per quarter. Review progress monthly throughout the organization, adjust quarterly. 2️⃣ Simplicity: Tweet-sized updates that reflect not only status but also what you're doing next, and where you need support. 3️⃣ Transparency: Everyone in the organization can see all the organization's goals, and can subscribe to updates from any team. "When people subscribe to goals from other teams and reach out to offer help, that's when you know the system is working. We're seeing cross-functional collaboration that never would have happened otherwise." 👉 Read on: https://lnkd.in/d5xHEGtP #Collaboration #Culture #Goals

The first rule I was taught in business? Something that came back to haunt me. Let me explain. Growing up, I was told: Keep business information close to the chest. The belief was: If employees knew too much… revenue, challenges, what’s really going on… they might use it against you. That’s the mindset I saw modeled. So at first, I followed it. The result? ❌ Team members felt like outsiders, not owners ❌ Trust eroded each time something surfaced indirectly ❌ Morale dropped (it’s hard to stay motivated when you don’t know what you’re working toward) ❌ It slowed us down (more questions, more confusion) ❌ It created silos (departments focused on surviving, not collaborating) I knew something was broken, but didn’t know how to fix it. Until… a hero came along. I hired Sean to replace me as CEO. And one of his first decisions was something I was feeling in my heart all along. That we need to lead with transparency. So we did a full 180. Now, once a quarter, we host an all-hands meeting where we share everything… no sugarcoating. ✔️ Revenue growth (or decline) ✔️ Viewer stats and content performance ✔️ What’s working ✔️ What’s broken ✔️ New bets we’re making (and the ones we’re letting go of) Yesterday, we opened the books and laid it all out for nearly 100 team members in person and 100+ tuning in remotely. The wins, the losses, all of it. The new result? Transparency has done something that secrecy never could: It’s built trust. Ownership. Alignment. What I’ve come to learn is, when everyone knows the scoreboard: They don’t just clock in… they lean in. The old way was fear-based. This way? It’s mission-based. And in today’s world, that makes all the difference.

When I first started leading a team, it was revealing. It was a fairly sizeable team, and until then, from that team I had only ever worked closely with one person. Within a few weeks, it became clear: Something wasn’t working. The signs were subtle at first: ⚠️ Side conversations started happening more often ⚠️ Some team members stopped asking me questions directly ⚠️ Feedback in retros was vague but pointed such as “we don’t know why we’re doing this” ⚠️ I felt energy in meetings drop — more silence, less ownership And then it hit me, they didn’t think I was being upfront and transparent enough. They questioned my motives behind decisions. In consulting, a team of 3+ already feels big. Each consultant carries their own journey, their own anxieties, and the mix of project intensity + pressure of the next evaluation cycle can break anyone. That’s when I learned my first big leadership lesson: Transparency is not a “nice-to-have.” It’s the glue that holds the team together. Transparency isn’t about sharing everything. It’s about: 🔑 Making your decision-making process visible 🔑 Explaining the “why” behind your choices 🔑 Letting people know where they stand, even when it’s uncomfortable 🔑 Showing that fairness, not favoritism, drives your calls You won’t have the same relationship with everyone. But you can still earn everyone’s trust, by being consistently clear. Because in a high-pressure environment, lack of transparency is not neutral. It breeds doubt, then disengagement, and eventually, a broken team. When leading a team, transparency is the difference between being a manager of tasks and a leader of people. #Leadership #Mindset #Team #Culture ------------------- I write regularly on People | Leadership | Transformation | Sustainability. Follow Surya Sharma.

Transparency Helps Everybody For years, I have maintained a private framework for my own use where I evaluate how organizations support people during layoffs, restructurings, and career transitions. It is not something I publish. It is simply a 1–5 rating system based on thousands of conversations and observations across the industry. The factors include how much support is provided to affected employees, whether career resources and introductions are offered, the level of financial and transition assistance, executive, recruiting, and hiring team involvement, the emotional support environment around the change, and importantly, the level of transparency provided to employees and the broader community. Over many years, one pattern has become impossible to ignore: organizations that score 4s and 5s consistently produce better outcomes for affected employees. People find work faster, fewer people remain unemployed long-term, and candidates report a better overall experience, even in a difficult situation. This should not be surprising. One of the biggest drivers is transparency. I understand the many reasons organizations may hesitate to share information. But I can also tell you that organizations that disclose the size of a reduction, help assemble lists of impacted employees who wish to be identified, and generally make information available create materially better hiring outcomes. More transparency means more visibility. More visibility means more outreach. More outreach means more interviews and more opportunities. This is one reason we created the Games Org Support Post program. We have now completed 141 of them. The value is not a LinkedIn post by itself. The value is the broader system of support around it: introducing resources, walking teams through options, connecting people to help, and getting job-search activity started as early as possible. In fact, the organizations that impress me most are often the ones that arrive with everything already prepared. They already know who is looking. They already have resources assembled. They already have a plan. To me, that signals something much bigger than the post itself. There is a broader culture of support already in motion. On the other side, I occasionally hear about efforts to minimize reporting, conceal numbers, obscure who was affected, or otherwise reduce visibility around cuts. I have even heard about specific things people do to conceal data or engagement from ASGC on occasion. That is always disappointing, not because it affects me or a community program, but because it directly reduces the ability of affected people to receive help. The data I have seen over years points in the same direction: transparency leads to better outcomes, transparency leads to faster placements, and transparency helps people. When people are going through one of the most difficult moments of their careers, helping them should be the priority above all else. Human beings matter more than PR.

From Intention to Impact: Building Goal Clarity through SMART Goal Sessions🎯 Facilitating the recent SMART Goals sessions with cross-functional teams was a reminder of how powerful structured goal-setting can be—when paired with the right learning methodologies. We didn’t just talk about making goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—we experienced how to make them real, relevant, and results-driven. Here’s what made the difference: * Case-based learning to contextualize SMART goals within actual business challenges * Peer discussions & real-time feedback to refine clarity and purpose * Visual goal frameworks for structured thinking and prioritization * Action mapping to link goals directly to outcomes and performance indicators These diverse learning methodologies helped participants: *Gain crystal-clear clarity on what they’re working towards *Align personal objectives with team and organizational priorities *Build accountability-driven culture where execution matters as much as ideation When learning is interactive, experiential, and reflective, goal-setting becomes a strategic habit, not a compliance task. Excited to see how these SMART Goals turn into SMART Actions in the months ahead! #SMARTGoals #LearningInAction #GoalClarity #BusinessExecution #L&DStrategy #ExperientialLearning #OrganizationalExcellence #PeopleDevelopment #LearningMethodologies #FutureReadyTeams