Why transparency is the cornerstone of organisational success
In our social media age people are increasingly used to sharing their lives openly with the world. Transparency has become currency of connection.
This currency is not limited to our personal interactions, however. Across industries, to trust an organisation consumers increasingly expect and demand transparency. And the same is true inside our organisations. Employees expect the same transparency as consumers.
As leaders we are constantly on the lookout for breakthroughs to take our organisations and our teams to the next level. In the current highly-competitive climate, reviewing how we operate internally and consciously driving employee engagement can offer the kind of breakthrough that will enable us stay ahead of the curve.
Transparency is critical to that breakthrough, playing a vital role inside our company walls.
Why it’s so vital
Transparency is like the glue that holds a business together, through its inevitable peaks and troughs. It is crucial for fostering an effective culture of communication, honesty, teamwork and trust between colleagues. Without it, employees are less likely to voice their opinion and more likely to feel disconnected from the organisation.
In fact, 35% of employees say they’d leave their company if they didn’t trust their manager. This makes sense too. Without transparency, employees don’t feel in the loop, making it hard to fully embrace their professional roles and see where they fit within the larger context of the organisation.
This is why trust is such a key ingredient for employee engagement. If open communication gives workers a roadmap of the company’s aims, ambitions and strategies, trust gives them a roadmap of where they fit into this picture. Transparency is the key that unlocks this map. Without it we can’t foster this trust and unlock the extra effort employees will put in when they have a high level of engagement.
When an organisation has a high level of transparency, employees feel free to express themselves, leading to innovation and fresh ideas, which further invests them in business outcomes.
So instead of just a 9-5, employees at an organisation with a well-developed culture of transparency view their place of work as a relationship-based environment. This nurtures a feeling of belonging, where everyone understands their roles and how they can contribute towards the goals and success of the business.
But if we, as leaders, don’t develop that culture of openness and trust, it becomes that much harder to nurture a feeling of connectivity and generate alignment among employees. Hindering not only our work environment but the success of our organisations too!
The challenge
Transparency isn’t something you do, it’s a culture, one which needs purposeful and fastidious cultivation. Being transparent isn’t something that just happens when the time is right, but rather something we engage in consistently. Too often transparency is spelled out as an organisational value, but it doesn’t live and breathe in the corridors of power. As soon as a key decision is made which isn’t communicated, you no longer have a culture of transparency.
But in the day-to-day grind of business, sustaining transparency is easier said than done. Talk to us to explore how to build (and rebuild) trust through transparency.
