Honesty & Transparency.

Is your company open and honest in your communication? Do you promote your staff to make decisions according to the core values of the company, or be cunning and unscrupulous.? Do you promote a consensus, by being open? These are questions that help assess your company’s core value of being open and the leadership ‘s commitment to transparency.

“A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.”- Dalai Lama

Behavior needs to be transparent and open, so that each individual understands the impact of his or her actions on others, and can correctly judge the actions of others. Transparency also has a pro-active impact because what is expected will allow staff to properly make decision and act according to the core principles of a company. Leaders who don’t want to be judged by the same scale they use, prefer not to be transparent, thereby they avoid being accountable. Such behaviour leads to a feeling of insecurity about the leader.

A company culture should make their people feel free to discuss issues and dilemmas which naturally arise in any business. A consensus can be reached only if parties are honest about the issues faced. Such open discussions helps to arrive at a consensus view on what is acceptable. For example, if a loss situation occurs and the staff are not free to have an open discussion to clarify the loss and reach a consensus about future actions, rectification would take long and may not be acceptable/successful. If the discussions are open and honest it’s easy to reinforce the culture of the company and share responsibility with the team.

“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.” -Mother Teresa (1910-1997);