De Pree Questions for Leaders, Part III

In a previous post about Leadership Jazz by Max De Pree, a list of questions was provided.  This list is questions that leaders should expect from their followers.  One of those questions is: 

    Are you ready to be ruthlessly honest?

Stepping back, when looking for people to add to your organization, look for people who ask hard questions.  Good followers and good leaders ask hard questions and will want ask follow up questions to dig deeper.  Good followers will also appreciate the honesty and sincerity; if you disclose personal or corporate details about a difficult decision, they will not share it with every employee, every newspaper, and every social network the moment they leave your office.

Be ruthlessly honest.  Most hard questions require complex answers.  Give the full honest answers. Notice if most of your answers are a few words, a few sentences, or a few paragraphs.  Most answers to complex questions will requires a few paragraphs.  You may need to develop your ability deliver answers that build trust. 

Connect back to core principles.  Both leaders and organizations have core principles, visions, and missions.  Connect the answer to complex questions from followers back to these core principles.  Often, being ruthlessly honest is the most difficult when a question is about deviation from core principles. 

For example, a certain decision may be completely in the interest of short term revenue but completely against the interest of long term employee development. If a follower ask about this, be honest about this.  A good follower or fellow leaders will be more interested in the answer to the next questions: How do we prevent this or change this in the future?

Some leaders only give partial answers.  Avoid this when possible.  However, some information may be confidential due to personnel matters, confidentiality, or legal issues.  In these cases, simple state these boundaries.   If you use these issues sparingly, and have the demonstrated honesty in other matters, followers will respect these boundaries.