The Four Corners of Candor
Tone at the top.
Candor starts with the organizational leader, be it the CEO, division president, department manager or shift supervisor. How candid is this leader with the people over which he or she has positional authority? Candor and its cousins (transparency, trust, etc.) must be effectively modeled to give people a reason to believe they can also be candid. Better yet, that it is to be expected. This includes being candid and allowing others to be candid in return.
I was speaking with a top executive recently about "truth telling" in an area of his life that needed spoken to. He quipped essentially, "But that doesn't mean I have to do something about it." My comeback was, "Oh... So there's truth telling and truth listening." We know each other well enough that we can have that exchange, but it illustrates that candor is a two-way street.
The quickest way to cultivate or kill candor is the degree in which the leader demonstrates it.
Be candid with the right person. In my last CEO role, this was one of our standing protocols for our work together. In other words, we cannot tolerate triangulation. Experience tells me that many people have great skill at being candid but mostly with everyone except the person(s) with which it should be directed. You know what this feels like. "The problem with him is that..." Or, "Every time she..." It’s hard to develop the discipline of stopping someone when they bring us one of these conversations. Giving these words a place to land as a third party only drives issues underground and further away from being resolved. This hurts relationships AND results. I'm not saying there is no place for coaching someone on how to address a conflict or give feedback, but there is a fine line that leaders need to be able to detect and discern.
Connect candor to business results. A former colleague, Tom Verdery was known in our team for saying, "It's not about who is right. It's about what is right." Cultures that embrace this can avoid the egos and the drama of dealing with debates. People will disagree on a given course or decision. In fact, if they don't disagree at some frequency, something else is wrong. Without candor to share and lean into the debate, the organization risks a suboptimal outcome because someone held back what was needed in the moment. If leaders can connect the dots between candor, mission, vision, strategy, and results, others will see the shared interest in caring enough to not hold back.
Coach for the next time. My litmus test for candor is: after being candid, is the person more or less likely to be candid the next time an opportunity arises? If one leaves a candid conversation thinking, "I'm never gonna do that again!", we're losing ground. But if instead they think, "That wasn't so bad..." then there's hope for more. In coaching people through moments of candor, I'm trying to get them to see the benefits to gain the latter reaction because I know there's a next time coming. It's just a matter of time and topic.
Ultimately, candor is a choice. It's every moment with every person. Positive repetition increases your odds of being appropriately candid the next time, but it's no guarantee. As leaders, we need to recognize the critical role it plays and resolve ourselves toward it.