Teams take their cues from leaders, and if a leader is unable to see and communicate reality clearly, the team suffers a similar fate. This compounds into a negative feedback loop that continually diminishes the entire group’s ability to see reality and function within it.
To speak candidly is to say all that is true to you with awareness and kindness. It is a rejection of the path fear demands.
Fear of repeating the past, destroying the future, and misperceiving the present can cause leaders to:
- lie (say something that we know to be untrue)
- bullshit (dismiss truth and falsity altogether)
- manipulate (e.g., emotive conjugation)
- conceal (withhold facts, thoughts, feelings, and sensations)
Fear-based leadership leads to lower team engagement, cultures of silence, resentment, and an overall depletion of energy that shows up everywhere—from individual people to the products and services they create and deliver.
Candor comes from love, not fear.
To be aware means to be open to all sources and ways of knowing (beliefs, doing it yourself, other perspectives, co-identifying). It is to be aware that you are aware.
To speak your truth means to say things that no one can argue. “I feel, I think, I notice…”
Listen to the words (head), the emotions (heart), and the desires (gut) of both yourself and those around you.
To practice candor effectively, a leader must weave a collective commitment to it into all aspects of communication, from hiring to company value statements, meeting standards, and educational material.