Should leaders be open books? Exploring transparent communication in leadership

When it comes to leadership, what’s more dangerous: Transparency, or a lack thereof? Does it depend on the leadership context? Is it an old-fashioned value that’s under-practiced and misunderstood, or a more contemporary requirement of leadership that’s under-valued and unnecessarily feared???

I was inspired to write about this topic after receiving some feedback from my colleagues at USA for UNHCR , where I began as Executive Director and CEO back in January. Every Friday I send an email to the team, sharing some of the highlights (and, when appropriate, lowlights) of the week that was. If something in the news is weighing on me, chances are it’s weighing on a number of other people in the org, too, and my naming it can remind them they aren’t alone. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback and have been moved by how much this simple weekly update means to people.?

As an example of the kinds of things I share, earlier this year, I wrote,

“...We are nearing the 1-year mark since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I attended a briefing yesterday about our cross-org campaign efforts (amazingly aligned and integrated and powerful) and just wanted to say congrats and… it is devastating that the invasion ever even happened, and that it is on-going one year since. I know holding that complexity is difficult—to be proud of what we have accomplished in the face of something so brutal and tragic—so I wanted to name it here and provide some space for that reflection.”

As you can see, these updates aren’t a bulleted list of organizational priorities, edited by committee, nor are they a dry summary of who I met with, where, and why. Instead they aspire to be informal, conversational accounts of what really made an impression on me in the past week; sometimes, that’s a visit to a refugee or migrant support center and, other times, it’s the creative way in which a certain department keeps the rest of us apprised of its work.?

Certainly, part of the role of a leader is knowing what to share with whom, when, and how. But I think we greatly overestimate the dangers of open communication, and greatly underestimate its power and potential. Case in point: A staff member recently replied to one of my emails to let me know, “Thank you for ‘seeing us’.”?

By letting other people see who we are, we can help them feel seen, in turn.

Over the course of my career, I’ve repeatedly been advised that being transparent is “dangerous.” Even to this day, people caution me, “Don’t spoil them for information; don’t let them behind the wizard’s curtain; you won’t be able to keep it up, or you’ll set people’s expectations too high —?you’ll create a culture of expectation.” In other words, the more people are aware of, the more they’ll want to have a say. Which begs the question: Why are we afraid of people having a say??

Part of transparency is owning up to how much we still have to learn. And there’s real power in bringing people along with us on these learning journeys. I’ve been getting a crash course, these last few months, on the intricacies of the plight of refugees and displaced people all over the globe, and I share some of what I’m learning in my Friday emails. A colleague who has been at the organization for several years told me how much my emails were teaching her about the organization, where her tenure is vastly longer than mine. Talk about a powerful compliment-- it made my month!

I’ll confess, my Friday emails aren’t completely altruistic. The discipline of writing them creates space for me to take stock of my week, which means it creates space for me to more deeply process, and learn from, where I’ve been, in service to where I’m going. A few organizations ago, I wrote a monthly email to staff about DE&I, which forced me to think critically about the issues with which I was grappling. Writing is thinking, after all. And when we create space in our schedules, as leaders, in which to write, we are ultimately creating space in which to think.

Communication, I’ve come to realize, is fundamentally about being in relationship with each other. How we communicate as leaders is a microcosm of how we’re in relationship with our team, our partners, and everyone else with whom we interact...including all of you. When I pause to read the content you share here on LinkedIn, and to share my own, I learn, and I am in relationship with you — two things that will always, always be very important to me.