Is your Higher Purpose to “Look Good” or “Be/Do Good”?

While communication should always be respectful, civil and done with a kind heart and intentions, Team Members should ALWAYS feel free and safe to speak the honest truth, especially internally. Just like with family, most issues are best resolved from within. When “leaders” become more concerned with “optics” or spin than with solving the problem, the message they send to the rest of the organization is highly toxic and destructive. Real Leaders role model facing issues directly and communicating clearly and completely to those they are responsible to, in this case, the Board of Directors. When the don’t, they teach their reports to do the same to them; to hide unpleasant truths, to manage the message to the level of distortion.

“Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO) was seething. But it wasn’t the looming disaster at Facebook that angered Ms. Sandberg. It was the social network’s security chief, Alex Stamos, who had informed company board members the day before that Facebook had yet to contain the Russian infestation. Mr. Stamos’s briefing had prompted a humiliating boardroom interrogation of Ms. Sandberg and her billionaire boss. She appeared to regard the admission as a betrayal. ‘You threw us under the bus!’, she yelled.” – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier