Informed Decision-Making Requires Candor
In the classic film "It's a Wonderful Life," George Bailey's candor initially earns him a harsh reaction from Mr. Gower. Yet his willingness to speak up prevents a tragic mistake.
By Amy Hatfield
Our top-performing article this year is a post about succession planning. Which makes sense, but the second-best performer is a story about candor. I didn't expect that.
It’s true that there's a lot riding on candor in family business, because there's a lot riding on good communication. (You can read about that here, here and here.) But it's not the topic most families in business seek out. They're looking for help with things like succession planning and family governance, wealth analysis, forecasting or the nuances of managing and stewarding private assets.
Yet, our community of readers are clearly keeping a bead on the target that guides everything else: None of the other stuff matters if the information used to make decisions is compromised. That puts a high level of importance on communication, yes, but also on the employees of a family enterprise. They’re a company’s “boots on the ground.” They encounter, gather or interact with so much of the information that, collectively, informs high-level decision-making. And when that intel is compromised — maybe by filtering information or hedging to make it more palatable — it either shows up as half-truths, or worse, insights that may never surface because they’re hard truths that are pushed down or cast aside.
Without candor, communication can become a postured exercise in empty platitudes. An empty platitude is, by definition, “a statement that sounds positive, wise or meaningful, but offers little to no real substance or insight.” But you know what empty platitudes do achieve? They provide cover for the person offering them. Word salads stick to nothing. They’re offered, acknowledged and forgotten.
Is cover necessary for your company’s truthsayers?
The answer depends on who’s in charge. In family business, the truthsayer’s stakes are arguably higher. Candor can have a domino effect when hard truths aren’t received well. What happens in the office often comes home and shows up around the family’s dinner table.
Leaders must ask themselves: Am I seeking affirmation or information?
If the answer is information, the question then becomes: How well do I receive information — both the good and the bad? Because how a leader responds to candor determines how much candor they’ll receive. To green light candor, leaders must welcome, encourage and accept it, without fragility or defensiveness.
Here are 7 ways to put this leadership approach into practice for your family enterprise or middle-market company:
Respond first by clarifying the substance of what is being said rather than reacting to how it was delivered.
Questions come before judgments.
Understanding precedes evaluation.
Leaders seeking candor make their reactions legible. (Meaning, they do not punish disagreement indirectly through tone, exclusion or later retaliation.
When a viewpoint will not be adopted, leaders who nurture a culture of candor explain why.
When a concern is valid but untimely, they say so with clarity. Over time, this clarity teaches employees that speaking up will not result in arbitrary consequences.
In moments of stress, leaders do not abandon their standards. Employees quickly learn whether respectful candor applies only in calm moments, or whether it holds when stakes are high.
At the end of the day, respectful candor does not eliminate conflict, and it does not guarantee agreement. What it does offer is a way to surface disagreement earlier, with less residue. It also increases the likelihood that shared information improves the work and informs decision-making in ways that benefits an enterprise’s bottom line and supports its long-term success.
Editor's Note: Excerpts in this article originally appeared as part of a longer piece, “Making a Case for Workplace Candor.”
Amy Hatfield is Director of Communications for i3 Global Enterprises. Drawing on a background in Communication Studies from the University of Georgia and a career spanning public speaking, interpersonal communications and content marketing, she writes about leadership, decision-making and the human complexities that shape family enterprises.
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