Candour (part 10 of 12)

When did someone last tell you something you needed to hear, rather than something you wanted to hear?

About your organization. About how you're leading. About something that isn't working that so many can see but no one has said to you, out loud.

Do the people around you believe you want to hear it? Or don't?
What important things might you not be hearing?

Candour isn't a personality trait: a specific type of courage some people have. It isn't a cultural value you can post on a wall and expect it to be embraced. It's a response to conditions: what happens when things are said that might be uncomfortable.

Feedback needs candour to be effective. The most sophisticated feedback framework in the world produces nothing useful when truth feels risky.

Disagreement cannot inspire innovation without candour.

And candour cannot exist without trust and psychological safety to support it.

The infrastructure must hold together in its entirety if it is to hold at all.

What does your team really need to tell you - what would they tell you -  if they believed you genuinely wanted to hear it?