In today’s information age, there’s very little place to ‘hide,’ whether we want to or not. The era of ivory towers and back-room conversations is over. The element of confidentiality is getting more and more difficult to maintain. As such, it’s important to ensure our leadership behaviors are first-rate. We have to face the fact that we live in a world of transparency.

When you follow our 4^th Principle, “Doing the Right Thing When No One is Looking,” you’ll find that not only is transparency inevitable, it is fundamental to effective information-age leadership.

Watch this next two-minute Leadership in the Information Age video, The Power of Transparency, and see how becoming a transparent leader will benefit your performance as a leader and teambuilder:

 

Leaders no longer have the ability to live a sequestered existence; there’s no longer a bubble that leaders can surround themselves with. Instead, there are many methods of transparency leaders can adopt. Transparency takes effect in many ways.

For example, when you share your mistakes openly with people, you’re demonstrating transparency. When you collaborate with others on key decisions, and you ask them first before telling them what you think, you’re demonstrating transparency. When you value your team’s abilities by taking their ideas into consideration and perhaps implementing some of them, even if they’re not perfect in your eyes, then you’re creating an aura of transparency.

When you work very hard at listening more than speaking, using the 2-second rule to wait to respond to someone to obviously think about what they’re saying, then you’re indicating that you really value what others have to say. This is another way to demonstrate transparency.

Transparency is not so much about leaving the doors open, although that’s important. Rather, transparency is the practice of sharing and listening to information and ideas with the members of your team in an honest and forthright way. Think about how you can do that starting right away, and enjoy the journey!

 

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