The Rhythm of Transparent Communication

I recently had lunch with an experienced entrepreneur who, by most accounts, has been successful. He sold two previous businesses and was about to launch a new venture. We started discussing this book, and he zeroed in on the topic of transparency. He asked very pointed questions, like “Do you really think a leader should share everything?”, “Does my team really need to know how much money we are making or how much cash we have?” and “Should I share our plans to expand?” My answer to all of these is “Hell yeah.”

Of course, this entrepreneur isn’t alone in his reluctance to be so open. I typically see two main reasons why leaders choose not to be transparent. First, they want to protect their people. They want to shield them from the truth and they don’t want to freak people out. They worry that if people know certain things, then they may choose to leave. While this thinking may be noble, it is flawed because the truth usually comes out at some point, and it is always better for leaders to deliver the message proactively and let people ask questions.

Second, many leaders believe they remain in control and have more authority when they closely hold information. These leaders tend to be insecure and want to be viewed as authoritative. They believe that with information comes power, and thus, by withholding information, they retain control and hold more power in the organization. The reality is that a lack of open communication will slow your company down and will likely generate a rather robust rumor mill.?

So, what does transparent communication look like from my perspective??

The Rhythm Of Communication

The best companies consciously schedule organizational communication into their calendar. They dedicate time to letting people know what is going on in the organization. This becomes a key component of their culture.?

Quarterly Business Updates

The beginning of each quarter provides a perfect time to share the company’s performance over the prior quarter and to share plans for the coming quarter. At this event, the CEO states how the organization performed relative to goals set for the prior quarter. Then, each leadership team member reports on how they performed personally against each of their goals. This full loop of communicating goals and the performance relative to those goals provides two cultural benefits. First, it creates a culture of accountability and expectations for performance excellence. Second, it results in transparency.

After reviewing the prior quarter, encourage an open discussion regarding the coming quarter—the goals, the plans, and the challenges. This is a great time to hold an open question-and-answer session with the whole team present.

Weekly Standup

I highly recommend that every business owner take ten to twenty minutes each week to update the team on the company. This discipline ensures that everyone in the organization understands how the business performed over the prior week. This may include updates on sales, leads, customer issues, new marketing programs, product launches, or anything else relevant to the entire team. To do this successfully, keep the updates short and to the point. I tell each leadership team member they have less than ninety seconds to share what is most important to the whole organization.

This is also a great forum to share customer stories that reinforce your purpose as an organization or to call out a team member who exemplifies your core values. Lastly, it provides a weekly forum to answer any questions the team may have. People can either submit questions ahead of time or ask them in the open forum.

Additional Feedback And Communication

I also recommend taking the pulse of your organization through a periodic company survey, which checks in on the health of your business. This provides a method to compare how your organization is trending period over period. It’s an extremely valuable feedback mechanism if you are working on improving specific aspects of your culture. To be sure the changes are positively impacting your team, you must continue to ask for feedback.

After you collect feedback from the survey, it is critical that you share the results openly with your organization. This can lead to a fun and insightful dialogue within the organization. Unfortunately, I’ve seen many organizations ask team members to take time to provide feedback but then never share the results. This leads to the opposite of generating transparency and trust in the organization. Instead, you create an environment that is less likely to share information, since the team members don’t believe action will stem from the feedback.

Additionally, if an event in your organization might lead to uncertainty among your people, then you should schedule a forum to discuss what is currently happening. Some examples of this may include layoffs, acquisitions, raising capital, restructuring, a shift in strategy, fast growth, etc. Be mindful that although you may be perfectly comfortable with these events, your people will likely feel some anxiety related to them.

Below is an example communication calendar for reference as you look at how to map out this rhythm.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into strategies like the Rhythm of Communication and many more insights on leadership, scaling your business, and creating a thriving culture, I encourage you to pick up my book, Love Your People. It’s packed with practical tools and proven methods to help entrepreneurial leaders like you grow your company and lead with purpose.

https://www.cx10initiative.com/book