“H” is for Honest, leaders

I remember the blue folder sitting in a hidden corner of my desk. It was filled with spreadsheets filled with tons of information. Every manager, every team member, dates of hire, salary info, the kind of document you DON’T want to misplace. For weeks prior to “the day” I sat through meetings, through conference calls, through webinars, through meetings about the conference calls and webinars about the meetings. While many in our organization and even our industry had gone through this reduction activity months earlier, we had been able to hold off, due to strong performance. Until the time when we had to take action to help keep the overall organization strong.

I had dreams about the actual conversations; maybe nightmares was the more appropriate term. I felt responsible for those around me and wished with all my heart I could protect them.

When the time came, we had meetings back to back to back all day long. My leader sat with me. In all 20-some odd meetings that day. We could have chosen to bring the entire group together at once; essentially rip off the band aid in one fell swoop. Hindsight being what it is, maybe that would have been less stressful on the organization. We chose to meet individually with each person. As leaders, we felt it important to be honest and give each individual their time, their story, their information, their options. We let them be angry, be sad, cry, not show any emotion at all, whatever they needed.

No one LIKES being the one to say “you don’t have a job anymore”. In my experience, most of the time, the person did something to get into that seat. It isn’t usually a surprise. In this situation though, many folks were caught completely off guard. I kept going back to the reminder in my head that I needed to keep it simple, straightforward and be honest. For some people, I became the “bad guy” and that was honestly just fine with me. I didn’t like it, and yet I understood the need to be mad at someone and not a company name with no face. I decided that if I could be genuine, forthright and honest with each person, I would consider that being the best leader I could in the situation.

We sit in these very uncertain times, with businesses trying to creatively hold on to their customers. With schools and educators trying to find the best answers to an unknown set of questions. With organizations having to make very tough decisions – who stays and who doesn’t, who gets paid and who doesn’t, even in some cases who lives and who dies. It reminded me that H is for Honest. Great leaders are showing honesty right now. Even if that means saying “I don’t know the answers right now”. As parents, we are trying to strike a balance between extreme honesty and instilling panic and fear in our children.

The dictionary defines honest as “genuine, real, plain, humble, free from fraud or deception, marked by integrity”. Leaders don’t have to know everything. How could anyone truly prepare for the situations we are in right now (doomsdayers and hoarders are a different story). A great leader is honest with their team, their customers and themselves. Even when the story isn’t a fairy tale. Life can’t always be a Pinterest moment, right?

WHEN we get through this, I hope we take some of the lessons forward with us into our “normal” routines we move back to. More honesty in our businesses and our relationships is one of the tools that will always be there for us, ready to elevate our leadership.