None of us want people angry at us. We read the room. We figure out pretty fast what honesty costs in this organization. And we adjust accordingly.
I’ve worked for leaders who, when things went sideways, helped me pick up the pieces and move forward. There was still a hard conversation. But it didn’t make you want to disappear.
That story travels.
When people watch how leadership responds after something goes wrong, they’re calculating how much they want to share next time. If the last person who raised a problem got sidelined, people learn what honesty costs here. Leaders start operating on incomplete information, thinking they know how the work gets done, not realizing people shared the version that was safe to share.
Korn Ferry’s Leadership Architect – used by thousands of organizations to develop and evaluate leaders, identifies three competencies that determine whether honest information flows: Instills Trust. Courage. Drives Engagement. Not soft skills. Core leadership capabilities tied directly to organizational performance.
The organizations that improve over time are the ones where experienced people feel it’s worth sharing what they know. That institutional knowledge, built from years of close calls and adaptations, is only accessible if the conditions are right.
I work with operations and safety leaders in construction and energy to build the conditions where this kind of information actually surfaces. Happy to talk through what that looks like in your organization.