Navigating Transparent Leadership

As a leader, you are an information gatekeeper in your organization. Sounds intense, doesn’t it? You know the financial situation, company updates, and potential opportunities far before your team does. But isn’t it important to be transparent as well? How do you know how much to share? What if your employees feel in the dark?

When it comes to transparency, it’s all about balance. By implementing a few key changes, you can find the equilibrium between confidentiality and transparency. Keep reading to learn our best tips for “having an open door”, with boundaries, in the workplace.

 

Communicate Your Standards

We tend to feel frustrated when we feel uninformed. Most issues in life could have been avoided if proper communication occurred beforehand. Go ahead and set parameters with your team, letting them know that you are an open-book when you can be, but also need an understanding that some information is not available for discussion. And if possible, let them know that even if something can’t be shared now, they can expect it to be communicated at a later date.

 

Provide Office Hours

While not everything can be shared with your team, a good amount can be. If you have a sizable team under you, consider holding bi-weekly/monthly “office hours” meetings where the team can send in their questions and hear from you on what they should expect. This demonstrates your transparency, as well as keeps a consistent and scheduled line of communication between you and your team. Be mindful, however, that you do need to prepare to answer questions in real time and you may not always have a positive answer. That is okay. Your team deserves as much transparency as you can offer, and sometimes that includes less-than-ideal information.

 

Remember, You’re the Leader

When you get down to it, you are the leader and are hierarchically placed above the team. That means, information will and should trickle to you much earlier than it should be shared with your team. You have the right to digest information, and decide when and how you will share. If you’re not ready to discuss a certain topic, feel empowered to give a kind, but firm, “that is confidential information right now”, and then move on. You have the absolute right to make that choice.

 

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About Debi

Debi is a coach to high performers, leaders and business owners wanting to achieve more and grow beyond what they believe is possible. Known for her clarifying insight and a pragmatic approach, Debi brings her clients to the next step by asking the right questions during strategy development and supporting them during strategy implementation. With experience in management, recruitment and employee development for various industries, she has a wide scope of expertise and will confidently guide you towards a successful future in your career.

 

Ready to take your career to the next level?

Let’s chat. Schedule a call to discuss innovative solutions to your specific needs.

 

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Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

As a leader, you can have every technical skill in the world, but if you are lacking emotional intelligence, you will struggle to communicate properly with your team. While that may sound daunting, don’t worry, let’s walk through what emotional intelligence is and how you can implement it in your workplace.

 

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence, also referred to as EQ, is “the ability to understand and control your own feelings, and to understand the feelings of others and react to them in a suitable way” (Cambridge Dictionary).

 

 Resilient Educator* discuss the breakdown of EQ into its 5 key components:

  1. Emotional Self-Awareness — knowing what one is feeling at any given time and understanding the impact those moods have on others
  2. Self-Regulation — controlling or redirecting one’s emotions; anticipating consequences before acting on impulse
  3. Motivation — utilizing emotional factors to achieve goals, enjoy the learning process and persevere in the face of obstacles
  4. Empathy — sensing the emotions of others
  5. Social Skills — managing relationships, inspiring others and inducing desired responses from them

How do these 5 components tie into being a great leader? As a leader, you set the tone of your organization. The way that you interact with and react to your employees affects their cognition, confidence, and therefore, performance.

 

Emotional Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation

Let’s discuss emotional self-awareness and self-regulation. It’s imperative that you understand yourself first. Take the time to consider why your feelings are what they are and what instinctual actions you want to take, before you take them. What are your strengths and weaknesses? If presented with bad news, what is your impulse reaction? The more understanding you have of your own thoughts and behaviors, the better you can control them.

 

Motivation

What motivates you? What motivates your employees? Consider both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within. Doing work because it makes you feel accomplished, proud, purposeful, etc. Extrinsic motivation is all about what you can receive from your work. Awards, bonuses, public accolades. If you can understand what motivates your employees and makes them feel valued, you can create situations where their performance will thrive.

 

Empathy and Social Skills

In leadership, you’re going to face situations with your employees that are less than ideal for the business. Employees will have great days, but they will also have really bad days, just like you. The key to handling these bad days is having empathy for your employees, and being able to pick up on their emotions before they negatively affect business. One day, you may recognize that a typically chipper and confident employee seems quieter than usual. If possible and not an inconvenience to the business, perhaps that day you should move your 2-hour meeting with them to a different day. Or, if an employee is having a great day, that may be the day to meet with them and discuss upcoming projects you would like for them to take on. Overall, understand how to read the room. This empathy will lead to highly-valued, trusting relationships with your employees.

 

Lastly, consider your social abilities. Do you know how to properly handle conflict between employees? How to properly praise your employee when they’ve done excellent work? A leader with proper social skills creates an example for employees to model in their own behavior.

 

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About Debi

Debi is a coach to high performers, leaders and business owners wanting to achieve more and grow beyond what they believe is possible. Known for her clarifying insight and a pragmatic approach, Debi brings her clients to the next step by asking the right questions during strategy development and supporting them during strategy implementation. With experience in management, recruitment and employee development for various industries, she has a wide scope of expertise and will confidently guide you towards a successful future in your career.

 

Ready to take your career to the next level? 

Let’s chat. Schedule a call to discuss innovative solutions to your specific needs.

 

*“Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Theory: Explanation and Examples: Resilient Educator.” ResilientEducator.com, 11 June 2020

 

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