You can Promote Transparency in Your Workplace as a Leader
Transparency means that you are open to the people you work with. You have a direct line of communication with them. Sometimes, it is not easy being transparent to your team as a leader. You do not know how they will react on various issues. You would rather keep things to yourself and to the other members of the management team. However, it is not a good practice. If you want your employees to feel encouraged to work, you need to be open to them. These are some tips to help practice transparency at work.
Explain your decisions
When you make significant decisions, you need to inform everyone about it. You also need to explain why you are doing those changes. You need to do it in person if possible. Do not just send a lengthy email that no one will read. You want everyone to understand what you did and to also ask questions if they have one.
Let people share ideas
Even if you are the leader, it does not mean you are the only source of ideas. You also need to ask everyone in your group what they think about your next moves. You can tell them to share other ideas if they can think of anything. It does not mean that you will follow what they say, but it helps to make them feel like they matter. When you make the final decision, you need to everyone where that idea came from and how you ended up with it.
Share documents to everyone
When you are working on a project as a team, you need to share these documents to everyone. Even those who are not involved in a specific task also need to know what is going on. If there are updates, you need to let everyone know too. You want to be on the same page at all times. You can only keep sensitive matters that require confidentiality in rare cases, but you also need to explain to them why you cannot yet divulge such information.
Create a group chat
If you are talking to your team online, you need to send messages in group chats instead of direct messages. Whether you are assigning tasks or making reminders, everyone needs to be on the same page. You want people to feel that you are not hiding anything from them, or you are trying to favor some employees over the others.
Always be available
You need to prove that you have nothing to hide by being present. Even if you have a special room, do not lock it. Avoid heading out for meetings and other transactions all the time. You need to spend most of your days in a week in your office where your team can consult with you if they are having a difficult time.
Be honest
Do not sugarcoat responses. If you think that an employee presented a terrible proposal, you need to say how you feel without being disrespectful. Some employees might think that they are doing a good job even if they do not when you keep sugarcoating things.
You need to start the practice of being transparent now.
Photo Attribution:
Featured and 1st image from https://unsplash.com/photos/jxUuXxUFfp4
2nd image from https://zenplanner.com/authenticity-and-transparency-in-the-workplace/
