Like most of us, we rarely like to have surprises sneak up on us in our personal life. If your friends and family do not communicate clearly or withhold important information on subjects it can be frustrating and damaging to trust in the relationship. This same scenario can play out in business and cause both internal and external relationships to suffer.

External Relations

Some companies decide to withhold information which can cultivate gossip and speculation from both customers and employees. Choosing to be genuine, open and honest with all areas of your business will create many advantages for your company. This approach to business will start to pay off down the road as you form relationships with employees, suppliers and customers and will allow you to respond quickly to problems and controversy if they arise.

Being transparent will help your customers be more successful and lessen the burden of project delays. For example, if you have a project that has multiple stakeholders with various entities coming together working towards a defined deadline and you are not transparent in your setbacks, you will lose the trust of each stakeholder. Instead, take a more open and honest approach with the stakeholders at an earlier stage highlighting what can go wrong and where you could fall behind. When you do have a setback, communicate it early and often. It will give the other stakeholders a sense of trust plus a bigger picture of the project and the potential impact your delay may cause. Waiting too late and then deciding to ‘spill the beans’ will cause your business to lose customers and ultimately damage your revenue stream.

Internal Relations

Do not forget your employees. To build a culture of transparency with your customers, you must be transparent internally. To be as transparent as possible you must have a foundation of trust with each individual working at your company - open and transparent relationships start with a foundation of trust. Company leaders should demonstrate open and straight forward communication to the employees. Successful leaders today are not just good at telling people what to do, instead they act as more of a coordinator using influence and relationship continuity to ensure consistent positive behavior. Doing this will create an environment of engagement within your organization.

At Ball Systems, we often refer to a model called the ‘5-Dysfunctions’ from the book by Patrick Lencioni Five Dysfunction of a Team in our monthly all hands meeting that exemplifies transparency. The foundation of the model is “Absence of Trust’ and we are working hard at no longer having an absence of trust in our company. We operate as a transparent business from the top down and that creates an atmosphere of respect and builds a solid foundation of trust with our employees and customers.

Read more about how we are implementing the ‘5-Dysfunctions’ model from the book by Patrick Lencioni Five Dysfunction of a Team.