Transparent Communication for Leaders

As a senior leader, do you sometimes feel that you need to keep important information from your team in order to protect them, or to maintain a sense of control?

Or perhaps you're unsure about asking for their feedback for fear of having to address multiple conflicting viewpoints.

In this article we’ll explore the development and use of "transparent communication." We'll also navigate when it pays not to be transparent, and examine its potential impact on your organization (in other words, does it actually work!).

What Is Transparent Communication?

Transparent communication evolved in the early 2000s after a widespread public backlash against high-level corporate greed, conspiracy and fraud.

High-profile scandals involving companies such as Tyco, Enron and WorldCom caused outrage. Public trust in major institutions collapsed, and employees' trust in their own organizations took a dive, as the scale of shady, secret deceptions were dragged into the light.

Senior leaders knew radical change was required to repair the damage. So they moved toward far more open and honest dialogue with their own teams and people, and with the wider world. It was called "organizational transparency," which became transparent communication. [1]

In 2017, a team of U.S.-based communication experts – Bokyung Kim, Eunhae Park, and Glen Cameron – explored the impact of transparent communication on organizations, and provided a definition of a leader's role in adopting and supporting it:

“To provide sufficient and reliable information to employees in a timely manner, remove obstacles to internal information flow, being authentic and accountable in communicating organizational or job-related issues, and listening to employee opinions and criticism.” [2]

In practical, day-to-day terms, transparent communication means:

• Delivering clear, truthful communication about organizational goals, changes and decisions.
• Understanding the importance of accessibility and the timely sharing of relevant information to build trust and improve employee morale and performance.
• Encouraging feedback and ensuring that employees feel heard and valued in the decision-making process.

Getting Into a Transparent Communication Mindset

You'd be forgiven for thinking that being transparent means to share almost every detail of your whole operation. But that's not the case.

Being transparent is more about leading with authenticity and accountability. It's of particular importance for senior leaders, who tend to set the tone and communication standards for those they are responsible for.

So how do you go about becoming a transparent communicator? Understanding it and demonstrating it will take time and patience, and the results may not become apparent for some time.

But with experience and willingness to adopt it, the benefits can be transformational for your organization. The 2017 study by Kim et al found these benefits include: [3]

• Increased employee trust in their leaders and their organization.
• Greater job satisfaction, performance, and engagement among employees, characterized by dedication, vigor, and absorption in their work.
• Employees feel more confident in their roles when they are well-informed about organizational goals and changes.

The 3 Key Constructs of Transparent Communication

Kim's team identified three constructs, or pillars, that supported the concept of transparent communication between senior leaders and their teams:

1. Participation: managers and leaders should ask for the opinions and feedback of their people before making decisions.
2. Substantial information: information provided to teams or individuals should be timely, relevant, accurate, and delivered clearly.
3. Accountability: leaders shouldn’t shy away from delivering bad news, they should admit to their mistakes, and tell people more than one side of the story if there are more than one.

Let's look at these in more detail.

1. Participation

This fundamental first element means engaging your people before you make big decisions, and involving them in the process. In practice, this might mean holding informal conversations to gauge opinion, or a more structured process that makes use of surveys and polls.

The key challenge here is to present your approach in such a way that makes people feel genuinely included, and not simply like they’re taking part in a box-checking exercise.

To do this, share stories about how past decisions were made through employee engagement, or hold the conversation on work time, in a different venue so the team feels the exercise is genuinely important to you.

2. Substantial Information

When engaging people to understand their thoughts, feelings and opinions on a subject, it’s important to provide the right balance of information. And that information should be relevant, accurate and delivered clearly, in timely fashion.

3. Accountability

Transparent communication goes both ways. To build real trust between leaders and employees, companies should not avoid or obscure difficult truths.

If a mistake has been made, leaders should choose to own their errors. Equally, if something more consequential is brewing, such as cash-flow challenges or redundancies, companies should aim to be as transparent, supportive and compassionate about this as possible, and as early as they can.

Holding your cards close to your chest might seem like a sensible approach, but it runs the risk of encouraging your employees to do the same. Vulnerability and openness, especially during tough times, can build trust and loyalty. These qualities are what help build strong teams, and strong businesses.

Balancing Transparent Communication With Confidentiality

As a leader, you're likely in possession of information that you need to withhold or protect. Here are some examples of information that you should be cautious about revealing too soon – or even at all:

• Strategic plans: premature disclosure of plans for, say, a company merger or restructuring, could lead to misunderstandings, create unnecessary anxiety, or even provide your competitors with an advantage.
• Proprietary information or other sensitive data: you could fall foul of legal or regulatory requirements if you shared certain financial data, intellectual property, compliance, or litigation issues.
• Sensitive organizational changes: chances are, you’ll know before your team about potential redundancies or changes in leadership. But these are matters that need careful handling and should be released at the right time by the right people.
• Confidential employee information, or negotiations with third parties: don’t share personal data or details of contract talks with potential clients or suppliers with anyone without a “need to know.”

Does Transparent Communication Work?

That's the big question! Without beating about the bush, the answer is yes.

You've seen the benefits listed, above. And they aren't just glib guesses to make you feel good as a leader. The feedback loop of communicating openly with your employees, and involving them in decision making where appropriate can be proved to foster better collaboration and increased productivity.

Let's look at some hard stats from organizations that build and cultivate a high-trust environment. A 2017 report by Harvard Business Review revealed that employees in such organizations report: [4]

• 74 percent less stress.
• 106 percent more energy at work.
• 50 percent higher productivity.
• 13 percent fewer sick days.
• 76 percent more engagement.
• 29 percent more satisfaction with their lives.
• 40 percent less burnout.