Letting Your Guard Down

When a CEO recites the organization’s values through a microphone at a quarterly meeting, employees may think, “We already know this. We’ve heard it before.” The values and the CEO are not connected, and consequently, the employees likely feel disconnected, too. But when that CEO personalizes the topic, perhaps by sharing how the values have made a difference in his or her own work, the message has more substance, more relevance, and more meaning.

Do you express what is important to you and why? Do you invest time in personal conversations, making connections with your followers and letting them see the real you? In order for leadership transparency to lead to credibility, you must allow followers to see your humanness, too.

When followers understand a little about who leaders are as people—their perspectives, their lessons, their personal values—and the followers see a congruence between the inner and outer person, they are more likely to trust those leaders.