I am a curious person and a curious employee- I ask questions and like to know what is going on. It helps me do my job.
So, you can imagine how hard it was for me to have a boss that would share nothing with the team. We would know if he was at an important meeting or conference, but he never shared the content that was discussed with us. As we saw it, he kept the information as a source of power and control.
It drove me crazy knowing that there is information that might impact my job (now or in the future, be it new trends or insights, upcoming changes, initiatives etc. I understand that there are on a “need-to-know basis”, but not everything is. I felt uncertainty, and a lack of communication, transparency, and respect.
It got me thinking- what if I didn’t know he is not sharing information with me?
I sat there in one of our one-on-one meetings and said “I am asking you to lie to me”.
I explained the situation, how I feel, and asked him to share some of the information with us, even if not all of it.
“When you tell me nothing, I know you’re keeping 100% of the information from me. However, if you tell me some, I wouldn’t know if you’re giving me 100% of the information or 20%”.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t encourage dishonesty, but that was my way of telling him- give me the information I need, without taking away from your power.
I asked my boss to share the information he thought was relevant and valuable to me and my job.
The results were not late to arrive-
✔ My boss was able to use “partial sharing method” with us- giving us information while still being in control of the situation.
✔ Our team felt more informed and valued, having information shared with us.
✔ Our boss re-gained our team’s trust (it’s hard to trust someone who tells you nothing).
✔ More opportunities for communication and sharing occurred, which made room for more questions, which, in turn, led to more information coming down to us.
✔ We all became more productive and positive.
Eventually, a cultural change occurred- our meetings started with information sharing, our boss shared more and more with us, fostering a culture of communication as a two-way street and transparency.
Have you experienced a situation where transparency transformed your work environment?
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