We all hear and participate in the business jargon and have either become immune to it or are 
completely amused by it. I personally like playing a silent game of “Business Jargon Bingo” in my head when someone starts spewing the terms like “we need to stay in the swim lane,” “we need to do something new to move the needle,” “let’s set some time to get to know each other more and I will open up the kimono”, “we’ve got to start innovating to get off of this burning platform,” and of course the all-time classic, “we’ve got to get more voice of market data so we can understand the entire business ecosystem.”
The concept of “transparency” and the act of “being transparent” can now officially be put on the list of the most overused business jargon concepts today as it’s entered the mainstream of business leadership conversations.
The intent of “transparency” is born from pure leadership training and skill development. In a corporate environment, it is meant to describe the degree to which an organization’s decisions and actions are clear and observable to both insiders and outsiders. To deliver on the promise of transparency, organizations are providing greater disclosure, openness, clarity, and accuracy to employees, vendors, and shareholders.
From a practical business perspective as the concept of transparency seeps further into every day conversations, leaders and the people responsible for developing leaders – the talent development organizations and senior leaders who mentor them – must now understand the implications and power of the concept and how “being transparent” impacts the business ecosystem (hypocrisy of business jargon bingo noted).
It’s usually some sort of bad news…
The first thing people typically learn when dealing in this new world of transparency is that the words, “I’m going to be totally transparent now” usually mean bad news is about to be delivered.
- “I don’t think you did a great job on that report because you failed to include voice of customer data.”
- “We just got back the monthly P&L and our margin decreased instead of decreased which means we need to cut your budget”
- “The price is just too high, so we are going with another vendor”
Are just a few of the infinite examples of the way bad news is going to be delivered by people after they’ve told you they are going to be transparent.
Before I go on, there is a critical issue to discuss; when someone actually says they are going to be transparent now, does that mean they haven’t been transparent in the time before that? Does that mean from this moment forward they are also going to be transparent, or do things revert back to being non-transparent until the next time you hear, “I’m going to be transparent now” again? The learning lesson for us all is to be very careful when using these words because they have significant meaning and impact on the situation and the way people feel when they hear them.
What to do?
The next question, and theme of this blog, is what to do when this happens to you; when you are the receiver of someone telling you they are going to be transparent now.
Here are three suggested techniques for how to deal with this situation from a business leadership perspective:
“Thank you for being so transparent”
The first thing you want to do is acknowledge the other person for their transparency. This will do two things; first, genuinely recognize that this may not be easy for the other person and give them a compliment, and secondly it gives you a few moments to think about what just happened so you can gather your thoughts on the next response.
Clarify what you think you heard
The next thing you want to do is clarify and make sure you specifically understand everything the other person just shared with you. “May I take a moment to understand this; you just shared that my budget is being cut because of costs of goods sold has increased instead of decreasing?” This process ensures that you don’t make a mistake or misinterpreted the situation. Be very specific when you do this.
Be transparent back
The third and most important technique is being transparent back. “I’m very glad we are having this transparent conversation and thanks for clarifying. I do agree that the costs of goods sold have increased so let me be transparent back by saying that one of the reasons this is the case is that we had to switch to a more expensive vendor since our supply chain group upset our previous vendor by telling accounting to change the payment terms from 45 days to 90 days. Perhaps we can address that situation and get the cost structures back on track?
