Honesty Part 3: Knowing When Others Are Honest With You

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For the past two episodes, we’ve been talking all about the second component of the sheer clarity model, honesty. We started off with the foundational element of self-honesty and followed up with how to be honest with others. Building on those two components, today we’re looking at how to know when people are being honest with you.

On the journey to becoming the consummate leader by attraction, one of the stumbling blocks for many C Suite executives is getting honest feedback which is critical to growth and development. You might be up against corporate norms of deferring to the leader’s judgment without question or your team might be holding back out of fear of retribution. In my experience, the higher you are on the corporate ladder, the less likely you are to receive honest feedback.

So how do you actually know whether others are being honest with you? Can you set that up and encourage it? On today’s episode, Mathew and I talk about my favorite techniques and the simple practices you can use to create an environment that supports honest feedback and growth. We outline the key steps to get people to be honest with you and to repair disconnect with your team and colleagues, understanding your role in setting the tone, how to manage hurt and defensiveness when receiving negative feedback, and so much more!

You’re also going to want to look out for next week’s episode where we’ll be moving on to the third component of the sheer clarity, appropriate vulnerability, and how to achieve it.

Key Topics:

  • Mathew shares his experience from a recent podcasting conference and why he is so passionate about podcasting (2:11)
  • The inverse relationship between climbing the corporate ladder and being able to get honest feedback (3:56)
  • The first question to ask yourself before wondering whether people are telling you the truth (4:51)
  • Why it’s your responsibility as a leader to set the tone for the people you work with to give you honest feedback (5:28)
  • How fear of retribution often stifles the most important feedback (6:28)
  • Getting honest feedback from people with non-confrontational personalities (7:17)
  • Managing your defensiveness when receiving negative criticism (7:52)
  • The key signals of disconnection you should be conscious of in your interactions (10:13)
  • My suggestion for CEOs and leaders who tend to ramble in meetings (12:25)
  • How I give feedback in meetings without an invitation (13:39)
  • The simple question you can ask to encourage honest and complete feedback (15:35)
  • The key skills an intentional leader uses when seeking feedback (16:00)
  • How to turn around a situation where your team is not comfortable being honest with you (17:02)
  • Using voluntary vulnerability to repair your broken brand (18:08)
  • And much more!

Mentioned in this Episode:

Click here for a PDF version of the transcript

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