Candor-Winning Recipe

What is Candor?

“How many times during your work experience, you have received an honest, straight-between-the-eyes feedback session, where you came out knowing exactly what you have to do to improve and where you stand in the organization?”

When I ask this question, I generally get 15 percent of the responses as "Yes". Most of the time, it is closer to 10 percent actually, and Imagine this, if you are not getting honest, straight and unbiased feedback about your progress, are you giving it to your team?

Candor means unreserved, honest, or sincere expression. An expression of Forthrightneous which means free of ambiguity. Clear, Honest, Sincere Feedback expression.

THE CANDOR EFFECT

Let’s look at how candor leads to winning. There are three main ways.

First and foremost, candor gets more people in the conversation, and when you get more people in the discussion, to state the obvious, you get the idea rich. By that, I mean many more ideas get surfaced, discussed, pulled apart, and improved. Instead of everyone shutting down, everyone opens up and learns. Any organization—or unit or team—that brings more people and their minds into the conversation has an immediate advantage.

Secondly, candor generates speed. It is easier to debate ideas, expand and enhance them, and implement them when they are in everyone's faces. In a global marketplace, that approach-surface, debate, improvement, decide-is essential. Upstart five-person businesses down the street, in Shanghai, or in Bangalore will move faster than you. Keeping up with the times requires candor.

Lastly, candor reduces costs-a lot-although you can't put a price on it. It eliminates meaningless meetings and reports that confirm what everyone already knows. Candor replaces fancy PowerPoint slides, mind-numbing presentations, and boring off-site conferences with honest conversations about company strategy, new products, and performance.

What do you think about this subject?