You may have grown up hearing that “honesty is the best policy.” That saying still holds true. Enter the business world and the honesty stakes get higher … especially for leaders. Leaders make a lot of tough calls – where you’re worried about your team and the bottom line.
While being honest isn’t always easy, it’s the right thing and the important thing, especially at work. We – our business, employees, and our customers – stand to win from a culture of honesty. Let’s explore some strategies to create this culture of honesty.
- Reserve your judgement: We are hardwired for judgement, and while it has its place, it can sometimes deter honest feedback from employees. If employees feel you never like their ideas, they will stop sharing entirely. Address the downsides or the challenges of an idea while continuing to support and promote employees coming to you with their ideas.
- Create feedback systems: While we want honesty, we know the truth can hurt. Being available to your team is important, along with delivery of feedback and employee coaching. When people understand how to give honest feedback, they are much better at receiving it themselves. Help your employees improve by giving them resources, ideas, and support. They will better understand how to meet yours and the company’s expectations.
- Act on honest feedback: When employees give you honest feedback about an issue, it is important that you consider it. This means, at a minimum, having a conversation about the employee’s concerns and soliciting solutions from them.
- Empower employees to make mistakes: With honest leadership, employees are empowered to make mistakes and learn from them. When a mistake happens, have an open conversation, and try to see what went wrong. Look at mistakes through the lens of a process issue versus a people issue.
- Deal with dishonest behavior: Everyone needs to be held accountable to honesty. This means having systems in place to deal with dishonest behavior.
Honesty Day (April 30) reminds us to pay attention to our words and actions every day.
Sources:
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-importance-of-honesty-at-work/