Leadership is an essential skill. It's a hard job, and there are no shortcuts to understanding it. If you want to lead well, you need to understand how leadership works. Remember, transparent leadership creates a stronger team. You've probably witnessed or experienced it yourself.
What worries leadership most? Teams without transparency. When staff feels they need to hide things from leadership, it creates a sense of distrust. Transparency also helps improve communication, which is extremely valuable in the workplace.
A common misconception is that good leader needs to be authoritative, secretive, and unjust to get things done. They are often viewed as powerful individuals who make decisions without consulting those around them. The opposite is true. Great leaders have many strengths.
Now, if you're in the middle of a staff meeting when the team leader suddenly vanishes, everyone's left to their own devices and must complete tasks without guidance from leadership. As a result, work may not get done; people may get frustrated because they're unsure what they should be doing, and important information won't be communicated to everyone.
While leaders may take on projects and tasks, their primary purpose is to serve as a pillar of support for the staff. It's the staff who sets their work agenda and accomplish the work. Leaders must be supportive, flexible, and present so the team knows they're there for them.
In many cases, messy situations are created. Here are some common outcomes when staff isn't given the guidance they need:
Whether you're a solo entrepreneur or part of a Fortune 500 company, this is a team-building and leadership concept that any organization can utilize. It's about strengthening trust, communication, and the feeling that everyone involved is part of the same team.
Leaders will notice how their team functions and how their staff perceives them. For example, a manager may be concerned if they hear that they're controlling and unapproachable.
Regardless of the size of your team, it's essential for leadership to feel as though their presence is always wanted. Some of the following ways to accomplish this goal include:
Today, many companies are becoming more and more transparent in their operations as leaders realize it is the most effective way to lead a strong team. That's because when people have the appropriate information, they have a shared understanding of goals, objectives, priorities, and performance.
Incorporating objective measures of performance and results enhances accountability, improves motivation, and creates a culture in which employees are proud to work. When employees are aligned on where they are going, they move with purpose and can be highly productive as a team.
A transparent team has a high level of trust among its members and a strong sense of alignment around achieving the best possible performance. When people don't know precisely what is required of them, they tend to feel insecure, hesitant about committing, and less committed to the company's mission.
Think back to high school algebra class. As the teacher asked a question, the students would pull out their calculators and begin furiously punching the buttons. The result they wanted to see was right there, on the calculator's built-in LCD screen. It was easy to find and read.
With your team, access to information is as easy as pulling out your cell phone or logging on to an intranet page that shows your team's financial, sales, or customer service data. Accessible information helps your employees know where they stand, what is expected of them, and what they can expect from their team.
If people do not realize the importance of their work, they will not be motivated to do it. If a leader does not provide the appropriate context for individual and team performance, people tend to lose focus on their goals.
Because incentive systems are built on mutual expectations and accountability, they also create a team culture of collaboration and trust. Without clear goals and expectations, there is no accountability for meeting them.
A few years ago, leaders like this person would have had very different views on leadership. They would have thought of success as the leader's right to unilaterally make decisions and have staff carry out those decisions without question. Such a view is based on old-fashioned management thinking. This kind of thinking leads to the type of leadership that this person believes she is experiencing.
Today, leaders leveraging transparency and a willingness to be open to their direct reports are listening more and making fewer unilateral decisions. This is not to say that they do not make tough decisions. They do, but better results will follow with more information and team input.
In addition to providing functioning leaders, a transparent team offers opportunities for employees to help each other succeed. A good approach your team can help each other is by making real-time decisions and actions aligned with your company's goals.
When employees are seen as experts in their field and compassionate, competent, and good-natured individuals, they become examples of how a more transparent culture can be built. It is a culture that can help you and others move forward and achieve success.
In a world where transparency in leadership seems to be a growing concern for all levels of government, business leaders must be cautious in terms of how much information they share with the public. Even though transparency leads to more trust from consumers and employees, there are bound to be some simple moves that can help avoid questions about how your company is operating. By following these steps listed below, you will gain more trust from your customers and employees alike.
As much as transparency is essential for your business, it is also crucial that you share your information with the public. If you are not sharing information with your customers and employees, how do they expect you to solve their problems? Employees want to know if they will be given a good salary if they are considered for a raise and can keep working in the job they love. If you are not sharing information, how will your business differentiate itself from the competition?
A big part of your transparency lies with the business you run. If you are not transparent about everything going on, what makes you different from anyone else? It is something simple like an in-depth blog that makes all the difference. If people do not know anything about the company, they will be skeptical and uninterested in investing their hard-earned money within your company's products or services.
Media frenzy is a big thing nowadays, especially in cases where a company has done something wrong against an ally. You want to avoid bringing yourself into the spotlight and having people talk about how your company operates rather than what products and services you have.
Media frenzy can be avoided by being transparent with your company's standards and practices and keeping everything above board. If you need to make changes, then announce them to your employees, clients, and investors before the news gets out.
The people you choose to surround yourself with will make all the difference in the world. Surround yourself with honest people and have nothing left to hide, and you can rest assured that you are doing the right job.
This applies not only to your business but also to your personal life. If you are not surrounding yourself with positive people, it will be hard for the transparency of your business practices to shine through.
Even though the previous steps are vital to building transparency within your company, the most important step is to have a company where people can openly talk about their concerns. If you are not open about your business practices and what it takes to run your business, how can anyone trust that you will fix their problems? The best way is by making everyone feel comfortable and at ease about talking about anything that concerns them.
Transparency enables employees to make more informed, empowered decisions about their work. It also provides employees with more excellent opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration, essential for modern organizations to succeed.
Unfortunately, many leaders focus on making themselves, their team members or the company appear more transparent when transparency is at odds with authority and leadership. Leaders who promote transparency to gain authority unknowingly undermine their authority.
In doing so, they establish a culture where employees are unwilling to trust or follow their leadership - transparency could even be perceived as a vulnerability that should be protected at all costs. In addition to undermining the leader's credibility and decreasing influence.
These leaders also contribute to a climate of distrust that limits collaboration and may create an environment where employees are less willing to share or contribute new ideas or knowledge openly. The leader can effectively be seen as more secretive -the opposite of transparency.
Some leaders use transparency to gain the ear of those they lead. The leader shares information to build trust with their employees and colleagues. By giving away too much of what could be valuable or confidential information, the leader undermines their authority because they are no longer taking care of company responsibilities. Instead, they are tending to the needs of those who they lead.
In contrast to leaders obsessed with transparency to gain trust, others appreciate openness and embrace it as a leadership trait. These leaders believe that employees can be trusted with pertinent information because they realize that employees will use their discretion and judgment to determine when something is appropriate for the company or their workgroup.
When openness is used to promote trust, leaders use transparency to fuel collaboration and knowledge sharing. In these situations, leaders recognize that open information sharing is essential to fostering an environment where people will freely utilize knowledge gained from others to create new or better ideas and solutions.
There is nothing inherently wrong with sharing a lot of information, but employees are not interested in everything from their leader. Employees want to work for leaders that understand the importance of giving away selective information and when and how it should be shared.
Transparency is vital in building and maintaining trust. Transparency makes it possible for employees to make informed decisions about their day-to-day work, but this depends on knowing what's going on. Leaders who promote transparency to build trust may find themselves less influential, while leaders who embrace transparency often see their influence increase. Leaders should consider what they're sharing and why and how employees will translate this information into action.
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Written and Published By The Strategic Advisor Board Team
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