I came by this note from boss to employees. It’s just so very true. It’s extraordinarily honest. And that’s why it’s so unusual. While reading I caught myself thinking how courageous it was for the manager. On the second thought I corrected myself, hey, isn’t telling the truth to the team just common thing? Why I’ve thought it was so special then?
Because being honest with the team isn’t common. It isn’t easy either. It’s easier not to tell about a heckuva lot of things. No, you don’t have to know that our leader is leaving in three months. No, you don’t have to know what contracts we’re negotiating unless they’re signed. No you don’t have to know exact figures about our revenues and profits. No you don’t have to know about planned reorganizations. You’ll know when you’ll know.
For me personally, telling the truth to the team also isn’t easy, but I try hard (although I envy being so straightforward). I know the power of Great Gossip spread in the Mighty Kitchen. Sooner or later (usually sooner) news are spread among the people, very often being distorted every time it’s repeated. And you end up hearing stories and thinking if you should laugh or rather cry. On the other hand you earn team’s trust being the first who tell them all those stories. In a way which is at least a bit similar to reality.
I extend the rule of telling the truth on contacts with customers too. I strongly believe that it pays off. When I joined my current company it wasn’t so obvious. The choice was rather telling what customer wants to hear than telling what the reality is. It was a long way to change it, but I think we’re close now. When I hear that guys from customer’s maintenance team will close support case, believing that we’ll finish our task after they finally will be ready I don’t need more. However it’s possible because I say “I don’t know” when I really don’t know, I say “sorry, we screwed this one up” when we screwed something and I say “we won’t manage to do it by this deadline” when some unrealistic timeline is proposed.
Yes, with that attitude you can have to face some serious dissatisfaction and moaning, but in the long run it’s worth investment.
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