Let's be Transparent about Transparency

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I am a big believer in transparency in business.

Done right, transparency promotes open and collaborative work environments. It fosters team trust and communication. And it promotes cultures where intellectual honesty and data-driven decisions supersede politics and excuses.

All that said, I have experienced first-hand the repercussions of being overly transparent, and I have spoken with countless founders who aspire to be transparent with their teams, but still struggle with how much to share, at what point, and to whom.

When I recently wrote about the role of the founder, I focused on your responsibility to scale yourself and empower your team by bringing top-down context, rather than top-down decisions. When that context is potentially sensitive, however, there is another filter to apply:

As a founder, you are responsible for shielding your team from stress and uncertainty. Be fully transparent until sharing information you possess will increase stress or create uncertainty. You continue reading the rest of the article here.