The pros and cons of being honest at work

It’s always good to be honest. Isn’t it? What seems to be a universal truth presents a variety of challenges for leadership. How can Character-based development help?

Honesty and leadership?

As many leaders will know, honesty can be a double-edged sword.?Consider the impact of telling every colleague, manager or staff member exactly what you think – unbridled, unfiltered honesty. No holds barred.?What if you shared every leadership disagreement or financial challenge with the entire workforce??Imagine a world where the sales and finance teams told every client about the profit margins, production costs, and supply uncertainties.?

Suddenly, honesty isn’t necessarily the utopian ideal we might have imagined.?

Honesty and feedback?

If, as a leader within the business, L&D or HR, you are looking at how to get the best out of each and every team member and to maximise performance, you are likely highly focused on feedback – top down, bottom up and peer- to- peer.?Feedback, as they say, is the food of champions, it’s a gift.?And effective feedback requires honesty.?Honest, positive feedback is easy to give and to receive and is, of course, motivating.?

When the feedback required is less positive, suddenly the benefits of being honest become less clear, or at least harder to manage.?There are many courses, books, TED talks and YouTube films on how to give constructive feedback honestly and effectively. Yet, lessons on receiving feedback are harder to find.?The ability to receive constructive feedback, no matter how well delivered, very much depends on the individual. Honesty may break them, it may de-motivate, create anger, resentment, and contempt – no matter how fair and true the feedback is.?

So, what’s the answer? Is it to not give honest constructive feedback, unless you know someone is equipped to receive it? Is it to not share concerns and challenges with your team so they can help you??

The answer to those questions is surely no.?So, what should be done??

A culture of honesty... and more?

Developing an individual’s Character enables them to fulfil so much more than conventional L&D suggests.?We all possess skills and experience, but couple those with enhanced Character Qualities and the impact of those skills is vast.?

One definition of a culture is the environment created by the collective behaviours and attitudes of a group of individuals.?Therefore, the effect of a team of individuals that consistently display strength of Character Qualities such as honesty, humility, gratitude, collaboration, and compassion, would be a culture that is well equipped to be honest and truthful.?

Imagine a team with these Qualities in abundance. It could easily be argued that a team such as this would naturally be open to feedback, be able to be honest with colleagues without humiliating them and better equipped to deal with the challenging realities of a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world. Work on developing the culture of your team based on Character and perhaps honesty is no longer such a grey area.?

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If you’d like to assess the Character of your team or organisation, click here and complete a short Character audit. You will then receive a personalised report, helping you identify where and how you could help your team deliver optimal performance.

#character #honesty #nationalhonestyday #development #companyculture #leadership

Author: Jonathan Cox