8 Examples of Honesty in Leadership

What are some great examples of honesty in a leader? Here are 8 excellent examples.

What is one example you can share about how honesty in leadership paid off in your purpose-driven company?

To help leaders understand the benefits of honesty in business, we asked business professionals and leaders this question for their best insights. From creating new opportunities to building trust, there are several examples that may help you nurture more honesty in your purpose-driven organization.

Here are eight examples of honesty in leadership:

●        Tell your story

●        Create New Opportunities

●        Acknowledge Successes

●        Embrace Your Fears

●        Encourage Accountability

●        Develop Respect and Appreciation

●        Share Your Personal Story

●        Build Trust

Tell your story

Storytelling is one of the greatest tools that we have at our disposal as leaders. If you want to share about how honesty paid off, be honest! Talk about a time that you failed due to a lack of honesty, and be vulnerable. Then, tell a story about how you succeeded. The more that your employees see you behaving in an honest manner, talking about these topics, the more that honesty and authenticity will spread amongst your company. Use your story, be authentic, create the culture you want to see.

-Amy Block, Navitar

Create New Opportunities

For multiple years our company has been recognized as a "fastest growing company" from a local, but crucial publication. In 2021 I missed the deadline and completely forgot to apply. Wanting to be honest, I notified my peers on the executive team who were forgiving and their gracious attitude erased the stress I was feeling. That opened me up to a great idea: a press release entitled "Motivosity Forgets to Apply for Fastest Growing Award...and Doesn't Win". The press release took a vulnerable but humorous approach to our blunder and we ended up with better press from that goofy follow up than we would have from winning the award!

-Logan Mallory, Motivosity

Acknowledge Successes

Acknowledging your team members' success is a great example of how honesty in leadership can pay off. When you acknowledge your employee's successes they will feel a strong sense of loyalty to the company. They will build stronger bonds and increase their productivity. This is all due to honest acknowledgment of your employee’s successes.

Remon Aziz, Advantage

Embrace Your Fears

When I was at the lowest point in my life—feeling stuck in an abusive marriage, my inner voice rang out on the most challenging day. It sang out loud with, “Whatever's True”. This became my guiding principle (instead of making decisions on what I wished were true). I quickly found myself having transitioned to one of the happiest times of my life!

Run towards the challenge. Do not try to hide from it. Embrace learning from failure and Fail-forward quickly! Do this constantly until you have adapted from every mistake and have become a master of the same arena that was initially frightening you.
Aloha!

-Charles Ramsay, Metro Pdx Homes, Ramsay Real Estate Group

Encourage Accountability

My company deals with CPAP machines and other devices that can help those struggling with sleep apnea. Honesty and transparency are important in this company. For example, when the company was first starting out, I made sure employees knew exactly what was going on so that they could be prepared for any big changes. Being an honest leader has paid off because employees have the tools they need to succeed.

-Jay Levitt, Lofta

Develop Respect and Appreciation

The honesty that I share with clients, team and community is packaged with respect, appreciation, ethics, vision, and right action that builds solid trust in all areas.

For example, when I stated to the team, clients, alliances, and networks that Get Lagos Now would be co-founding the E-RecyclingPDX.com event to make sure that a large grouping of laptops and cellphones would be safely refurbished yearly and given out to local nonprofits in PDX, to help elevate local homelessness with better resources, many questioned if it would be successful. 

The 2nd Annual E-Recycling Event happened Aug. 5th and we received 5 times the amount of donations and look forward to next summer's event as well.

-Michelle Lagos, Get Lagos Now LLC

Share Your Personal Story

I have been open and honest about a personal story that inspired me to start our company. My daughter ran into a situation when she was searching for princesses on google and explicit material popped up. This inspired me to create a router with parental controls to help filter out the Internet for children. This has paid dividends when building trust with my employees and getting everyone onboard with the company's mission.

-John Wu, Gryphon Connect

Build Trust

While honesty starts with leadership, it goes far beyond that and is essential to building trust and connection for better team engagement. Our platform at Preciate is the perfect example of how honesty within leadership or within your teams can pay off.

When it comes to improving company culture for better collaboration and a sense of belonging, our platform encourages engagement through cultivating work relationships and streamlining the employee recognition process.

-Ed Stevens, Preciate

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