4 ms·

The best way to ensure your employees wont be honest or transparent with you is to not be honest or transparent with them. Or maybe to put it a bit more harshl

by chrsig 4y ago

The best way to ensure your employees wont be honest or transparent with you is to not be honest or transparent with them. Or maybe to put it a bit more harshly: You're not important enough to be hiding details Be open, honest, and realistic. Say what you hope will come to be as a result of your actions. Be clear when things aren't set in stone. Be transparent so that they can all work towards the same goals. If you keep them in the dark, they wont have any intuition on how to take initiative. Let positive results pump them up.

sgallant 4y ago
+1 to this comment. Before I founded my company, I worked for another startup that wasn’t very transparent. It was not a healthy/empowering environment. Now, when dealing with things like partnerships, customers, and finance (runway, burn, revenue, fundraising, etc) I ask myself “what type of company would I want to work at?” and I always lean towards transparency. Having said that, this needs to be done carefully. Instead of pumping everyone up about a potential partnership that could fall flat, you should try to be realistic and objective about it. “I’m really excited about a potential partnership with X. Even though this partnership will require we invest some resources doing Y, I see the possible benefits to the company as Z. From my perspective, this is a good opportunity for us. This isn’t finalized so I’ll keep you up to date on our progress. Let me know if you have any concerns or questions about this.”
- chrsig 4y ago
  > Having said that, this needs to be done carefully. Instead of pumping everyone up about a potential partnership that could fall flat, you should try to be realistic and objective about it. “I’m really excited about a potential partnership with X. Even though this partnership will require we invest some resources doing Y, I see the possible benefits to the company as Z. From my perspective, this is a good opportunity for us. This isn’t finalized so I’ll keep you up to date on our progress. Let me know if you have any concerns or questions about this.” Yes, exactly this. It's what I meant by: > Be open, honest, and realistic. Say what you hope will come to be as a result of your actions. Be clear when things aren't set in stone. Just be transparent with what you're trying to accomplish, what the risks are, what you're uncertain about, where things are in the process, what the next few steps are, and what contingencies there are.

by chrsig 4y ago

sgallant 4y ago

+1 to this comment. Before I founded my company, I worked for another startup that wasn’t very transparent. It was not a healthy/empowering environment. Now, when dealing with things like partnerships, customers, and finance (runway, burn, revenue, fundraising, etc) I ask myself “what type of company would I want to work at?” and I always lean towards transparency. Having said that, this needs to be done carefully. Instead of pumping everyone up about a potential partnership that could fall flat, you should try to be realistic and objective about it. “I’m really excited about a potential partnership with X. Even though this partnership will require we invest some resources doing Y, I see the possible benefits to the company as Z. From my perspective, this is a good opportunity for us. This isn’t finalized so I’ll keep you up to date on our progress. Let me know if you have any concerns or questions about this.”

chrsig 4y ago
> Having said that, this needs to be done carefully. Instead of pumping everyone up about a potential partnership that could fall flat, you should try to be realistic and objective about it. “I’m really excited about a potential partnership with X. Even though this partnership will require we invest some resources doing Y, I see the possible benefits to the company as Z. From my perspective, this is a good opportunity for us. This isn’t finalized so I’ll keep you up to date on our progress. Let me know if you have any concerns or questions about this.” Yes, exactly this. It's what I meant by: > Be open, honest, and realistic. Say what you hope will come to be as a result of your actions. Be clear when things aren't set in stone. Just be transparent with what you're trying to accomplish, what the risks are, what you're uncertain about, where things are in the process, what the next few steps are, and what contingencies there are.