Should Leaders and Managers Always Tell the (Hard) Truth?

Should Leaders and Managers Always Tell the (Hard) Truth?
Some managers and leaders may find it difficult to tell their employees the hard truth. This can limit their effectiveness in getting things done, executing the strategy, and leading in general. As Peter Bregman says in his article "It’s Your Job to Tell the Hard Truths" (2014) says, “No company can grow without leaders who are willing to take risks. If we don’t speak the truth about what we see and what we think, then it’s unlikely that we’ll take the smart risks necessary to lead”.

On the other hand, issues faced by leaders and managers tend to be difficult and sensitive and requiring nuance, like in the case of strategic plans, imminent layoffs or restructuring, financial instability, needed culture change, or toxic behavior by certain people. Telling the truth then also requires attention, patience and a certain intellectual level from the listeners.
Sometimes there may even be no single “truth” or clearly best approach at all. And some leaders, while being clear, tell untruths for dubious reasons.

➜ To what extent do you think it's important that managers and leaders "step forward" and tell the truth?

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Welcome to the forums of 12manage. In this discussion we exchange ideas about Should Leaders and Managers Always Tell the (Hard) Truth?.

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Welcome to the forums of 12manage. In this discussion we exchange ideas about Should Leaders and Managers Always Tell the (Hard) Truth?.

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Tendekai Dzinamarira
Manager, Zimbabwe

Challenges in Telling the Truth by Leaders and Managers

Challenges in telling the hard truth

Fear of conflict - Leaders might suppress releasing negative news to circumvent the conflict that might arise from the employees. This may result in passive aggressiveness as some truths will be hidden or sugar coated leading to speculations by the employees.
Cultural norms - Being open/blunt is sometimes regarded as rude or disruptive thus making it difficult for leaders to break them and speak openly.
Lack of emotional intelligence - Tough situations often require strong emotional skills which can lack in some leaders. They could avoid difficult conversations in order to save themselves from the emotional fallout that may arise.

Solutions for these challenges

Here are some ideas about how leaders can address these truth-telling challenges:

Courage and Risk-taking - As Patterson et al (2012) say, ““When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, that’s when you need to step up and talk openly.” Thus, leaders must be bold enough to engage in unsettling conversations. If they are too afraid of hurting peoples’ feelings, they are not doing any favours to anyone as it is likely to have negative impacts in future.
Actively enhance your communication skills - Communication is a soft skill that requires constant enhancements. Thus, when faced with difficult situations, it will be easier for leaders to handle difficult conversations. Bregman is of the view that leaders who excel at crucial conversations have high chances of creating a culture of open dialogue where people feel safe even in negative situations. Just to add on, Patterson et al (2012) also state, “You can either be honest and face the conflict, or you can avoid it and create a breeding ground for miscommunication.”
Regular feedback loops and raise the leadership standards - Bregman believes that the standard for leadership in many organizations is too low as political dynamics often overshadow performance. Leaders must also practice providing feedback, overtime engaging in tough conversations will be easier.

Leaders have to make a choice. As Brown (2018) says, “Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behaviour”. Leaders should avoid a firefighting mentality where they have to constantly solve problems when they get out of hand.

References:
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R. and Switzler, A. (2012). "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High". New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bregman, P. (2014) "It’s Your Job to Tell the Hard Truths", HBR.
Brown, B. (2018). "Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts". New York: Random House.

Nestor Jimenez
ICT Consultant, Colombia

Wrong Management
Telling the truth can be hard if management itself has been wrong.

Norman Dragt
Netherlands

How to Reveal the Truth
I would agree with Bregman if it was clear what the truth is.
But what most people see as truth is a feeling based on experiences, not on looking at the situation from an analytical point of view.
For example, many managers should step in when senior employees tell a new employee, who states a solution for a problem he or she encounters, that that is not the way it is done here. However most senior employees will show this correcting behavior with new employees out of sight of the manager. So the new employee thinks their solution is true, but the senior employees also think their current system of work is true, because both do not come from an analytical point of view of the problem, but from a feelings based truth.

A solution to address this discrepancy between the reality and what employees feel as true is what Daniel Kahneman called thinking system 2, analysis of the situation, asking questions what everybody is thinking and why. It has also been proposed by Peter Senge in his book that formed the basis for the learning organization idea in the 1990's. And by his mentor Chris Argyris who came up with the single and double loop learning model, where most organizations often only use single loop learning: What did we do wrong? How can we fix that?

So the issue might not be about telling the truth, but about revealing the truth.

Keesjan Kleef
Project Manager, Netherlands

Hassle Happens Anyway
Some notions from me: 1. Employees know far more than you think. Escpecially when a company is struggling and lay offs or a restructuring of the organisation is needed, employees already know this. S (...)

Molokanova
Professor, Ukraine

Transparent Leadership
This is what I've learned from AI and what I completely agree with: In business and organizational leadership, the question of whether leaders and managers should always tell the hard truth is a nuan (...)

Anonymous

Hard Statements Tend to be Simplistic and Wrong
Perhaps the biggest drawback of bold, hard statements—especially in complex cases—is that they are simplistic, lack nuance, and tend to be wrong. A great illustration is the world champion of hard "t (...)

Amer Abass
Manager, Sudan

Telling Hard Truth
I think all managers and leaders should tell the hard truth to employees. This is a sort of knowledge management to keep your staff and employees know what is going on and how can they deal with diffi (...)

Pot
Student (University), Malaysia

Truth = Transparent
Agree, I would relate the hard truth = the transparency, honesty, integrity. I think we need to learn to be transparent to staff, and don’t be afraid to receive transparent feedback from the staff, es (...)

Sayran Ghafuri,Kittani
Coach, Iraq

In Order to Tell the Hard Truth, the Manager May Need to Classify Staff
I think there are many good theories in leadership, personality styles and learning that influence the way managers think and enable them to classify employees according to criteria and standards that (...)

Maurice Hogarth
Consultant, United Kingdom

Why Some Leaders Allow Soft Facts to Ossify
I suggest that the essence of leadership is being Fair, Firm and Friendly. Telling anything other than the truth (as objectively as possible) means a lack of fairness, firmness and friendliness to th (...)