I don’t know if you’ve heard but we’ve got something going on here called a recession. I think I may have heard about it during a football game where, during a break in action, that quirky fellow who makes all the jokes alluded to it. Something about stock portfolios, credit crunching and mortgage collapses? Is any of this sounding familiar?
Well, I certainly hope so. You haven’t been able to go anywhere without hearing about it.
In the corporate world, it is the silent scream that everyone is vocalizing everyday. If you come out of a meeting with top management brass, you get asked “So, how did that go?” Or maybe, “What’s up with the top dogs?” All silently and secretly asking you to tell them everything is going to be okay, everything will be just fine. Don’t you worry guys, we are going to be good.
In economic times like these, it can be extremely difficult to come out of these meetings with that message. And my message is simple…
Don’t Spin The News (Good Or Bad)
The easiest way in the world to answer those questions is to say it was no big deal, everything is fine right now and to get back to work.
Stop that.
When people hear that, they come to their own conclusions. Some of it will be based on your reputation and how honest you’ve been before but most of it will be based on the fact that they want to digest what could possibly happen.
The best possible thing you can do in all situations (good or bad) is to be a transparent as possible. Transparent to the point of discomfort. It is something I have been a strong advocate of since I started in HR.
HR really needs to be on the leading edge of killing corporate spinsters and letting the leaders of the company speak plainly and clearly about the challenges facing the business. Unfortunately, HR often wants to let managers off the hook by allowing cop-out words such as “changes” in the place of “layoffs” or “considerable” in the place of “serious.” Worse, they may want to get their hands on the memo or outline and legalese the crap out of it. I couldn’t think of a worse thing to do.
Reasons To Not Be Transparent Usually Suck
I know you are all used to super professional language on this blog so I pulled out the suck word to demonstrate how absolutely foolish most of the reasoning behind not being transparent:
- You’re protecting your employees – You’re not protecting anyone. People are already talking about it and the one’s who aren’t either don’t matter, don’t care or are in denial.
- You don’t want to lose productivity -Do you not think that you are already allowing productivity to go down thanks to rumor taking over your employment base?
- That wouldn’t work here – Have you asked your employees how many of them want to be kept in the dark about issues surrounding your business?
- People could use the information against us – So are they not using the rumors they have against you currently? If an employee is going to trash you, wouldn’t you rather it be the truth?
- We may say something stupid – And? You are trying to communicate to employees and do the right thing. Your employees will give you a break. Get over it!
In most instances, the reason to not be transparent is to protect the leader or manager from something that is uncomfortable for them.
In Short, Create Reasonable Expectations
When you spin news and reality looks different, people stop trusting you and assume you’re spinning everything. You’ve heard the story of the boy that cried wolf? How about the story about the CEO that cried “We’re doing great”?
If you’re doing great, say it. If you’re not doing great, say it. Let your employees understand the big picture. Let them help you achieve your big picture goals.
When you talk honestly, without spin, your employees will know it. Don’t do it. And if you are in HR, you should be on the front lines of stopping this.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Lance –
Truer words were never spoken. What a lot of leaders don’t understand — but should — is that if you don’t tell the troops what is going on, they’ll make it up. I always tell them to measure their communications success by the level of rumor buzz in the organization. You would think they would pay attention since time spent fueling the rumor mill just drags down the bottom line.
Although I’ve coached more than 400 managers and execs in very long term relations over the years, I’ve never had a discussion with them about this kind of issue. I’d guess that how a company is going to handle financial troubles is an issue that’s handled at the board level/ceo level. I think it is weird that it was never brought up in a session, because ever thing else under the sun was–including their sex life. Even when working with financial officers at a major firm, the topic has never come up. I suspect it’s one of the few issues that stays in the inner sanctum.
It may be my shortsightedness, because I’ve asked absolutely anything else and gotten input. There are a couple of situations in the past in which the EVP of HR heavily influenced the CEO and management team in the direction of transparency. But it’s rare in most organizations for the senior HR person to have that kind of power. Thankfully, there are a few HR senior execs that weigh in with power.
You may know that the best studies and resources (including Harvard Business Review article or two) recommend transparency in difficult situations.
Another area where “spin” is also quite prevalent is in project environments.
Project leaders walk into a close door meeting, walk out looking glum, tell project members everything is okay. Of course, project members know better.
Well, they might know less, but that doesn’t stop them from making interpretations and inventing stories. Usually much worse than what reality is.
Great Post!
I really like the gist of what you are saying. It is very important to be transparent. However, I would like to add few observations.
In tough times people like to thing that someone is in control. We like the idea of a leader who has a plan. Knowing someone is in control means I can sleep a little better to night and I can concentrate on my job tomorrow.
Never lie – but it is important to project confidence and control. Some people are better at this than others. Therefore, management must spend sometime coaching those who are not or have them defer.
Just because you are not confident in the plan does not mean it will not work. It is almost impossible to separate you take on a plan of action and the plan itself. However, it is VERY important that you do. If management has decided on a course of action that you would have passed on… then you still need to toe the line. Not doing so could mean failure. Distension among the ranks, will spell the end to and loss of the war. (Make no mistake corporate survival is a war)
This is related to the above point, but it deserves mentioning directly. Everyone sees a wreck differently. Three people will see the exact same wreck three different ways. When communicating, we must be careful to state the facts as they are (knowing you will communicate 60% of it wrong).
All this is to say – be honest, be transparent, but doing so should be a planned orchestrated effort that reinforces confidence and focuses on the team’s goals.
Stop; spend some time on the communications plan. Take a moment to remember what you say is as important as what you don’t and how you say it.