Webinar Recap: Build Transparency In The Workplace

Transparency is essential to creating a thriving and inclusive workplace culture. Transparency is about building relationships, getting curious, asking questions, and practicing what you preach. And as a leader, it’s important to connect to your why: Why do you want to be more transparent? What do you want to achieve? Gain amazing insights and 5 key strategies to build transparency in the workplace in the clips below featuring coaches Alexandra Klimi, Tracy Sharp, and Taiwo Olajide.

Prioritizing Top-Down Communication 

Transparency is beneficial to both leaders and employees. Learn about the importance of transparent communication and strategies to enhance top-down communications as a leader with Coach Taiwo below.

Key takeaways:

• Top-down communication is critical to establishing trust and culture within the organization – “we build trust through relationships.” 

• Communicating what’s going on at the highest levels of the organization and ensuring that information flows to the middle and the “boots on the ground” is critical to building trust and effectively communicating an organization’s values.

• When trust is built and top-down communication is done well, this is the difference between compliance and relationships built on authentic commitment.

• As Coach Taiwo  says, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” As leaders, you are the champions of your organization and responsible for creating dialogue.

• It’s common for employees to be resistant to change or new processes, making a non-hierarchical communication flow essential to avoiding misunderstandings.

Fostering Strong Work Ethics & Culture

Discover ways to nurture a strong work ethic and culture of integrity in your organization with Coach Taiwo below.

Key takeaways:

• When we are transparent (sharing information) it fosters an atmosphere of good work ethics (values of the team). When we have good work ethics and a framework to do the work, that’s when organizational culture (collective beliefs) is developed.

• When implementing a new initiative or process, open communication channels among your team(s) will help to establish ethical decision-making.

• “Influence comes with relationship building,” according to Coach Taiwo. As a leader, the more relationships you build, the more trust you have. And when you have trust, you have influence.

Increasing Employee Engagement

Some of the behaviors that build engagement and motivation include: praise for good work, genuinely understanding why a decision was made, giving feedback, and showing vulnerability as a leader. Gain additional techniques and best practices to enhance employee engagement through transparent practices with Coach Alexandra below.

Key takeaways:

• When you are not sharing transparently,  there is a lack of expectation and clarity of goals, and people are left guessing.

• Ongoing transparency can help in delivering tougher messages to your team (ie. changes like restructuring). In these times, you can share what is happening, why it’s happening, how it’s happening, and what the impact is.

• Feedback is a two-way process and is critical to relationship-building and genuine connection. Having mechanisms in place to follow-up on feedback and implementing feedback helps demonstrate your commitment to growth and transparency.

Embracing Diversity & Inclusion

How can leaders recognize the importance of transparency in promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)? Gain strategies to execute your goals and understand the roles of leaders in supporting DEIB with Coach Tracy below.

Key takeaways:

• Being transparent about your DEIB policies, actions, and goals will attract a more diverse team.

• Reverse mentoring can be an effective technique; it allows you to get feedback from people with different perspectives.

• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) can help create opportunities for different people to work together and provide opportunities to share stories.

• It’s key to ensure HR policies are up-to-date and supportive of people from different genders, religions, sexualities, socio-economic statuses, races, and other backgrounds.

• Leaders must set the tone when it comes to transparency. This can include having an open-door policy, prioritizing active listening, and acknowledging your own barriers.

Supporting Cross-Functional Collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration is critical for innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage. Learn transparent practices to facilitate  collaboration and strengthen teamwork.

Key takeaways:

• As a leader, it’s important to identify and remove the barriers and silos that prevent teams from working together effectively to achieve the goals. 

• Host regular cross-functional meetings where people can discuss objectives and challenges.

• Be clear about how you’re making decisions and using your team’s input, as this helps to strengthen trust.

Ready to cultivate trust, improve communication channels, and create an environment where your team feels valued and empowered? Connect with a Coach 1:1 to create a strategy specific to your work context.

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Webinar recorded September 2023