This week our discussion on the importance of Relationship Leadership continues, focusing on the next key behavior of effective leaders: Provides Open Access to Information.

No one likes to be told, “You don’t need to know that.” It’s even less flattering to hear, “That information is only available to people at a higher level than you.” In addition, it can be very disheartening to find out that you are the last to know about a change. Leaders play such an important role in the effective delivery of information to their workforce. It’s important for leaders to know the right way to deliver information, in the right amount, at the right time.

Provides Open Access to Information

When employees perceive that their leader is withholding important information from them, it leads them to believe that they are not qualified or considered important enough to know certain information. Thus, we have the beginning of the phrase, “Information Is Power!”

As a leader, you can use information to convey trust and empowerment. At the same time, you are responsible for what you share, with whom, and by when. Often, the decision regarding who gets to know what is made on the “needs to know basis” theory. Often, this theory can be too restrictive. The more information an employee has, the better prepared he/she is to make decisions quickly. With the current pace of change and the increasing demands of our customers, rapid decision making is imperative. Therefore, making information accessible to as many people as possible is a competitive advantage.

A better criteria with which to judge who should receive information is as follows. As a leader, ask yourself, “Could this information in this person’s hands be harmful to our organization?” By asking this simple question, you will feel more comfortable making more information available to more people. The challenge then becomes how to keep from overloading your employees with information. The key is providing open access to information without dumping information on employees. Make your employees aware that information is available, and tell them how to access it. Communicate change as early as possible and then direct your employees to a common source where they can receive information.

If you feel that an employee is not ready to hear certain information, that may be your cue to offer development assistance to that person so that he/she can get to a point where you feel comfortable providing open access to information. Employees who are provided with open access to information are better prepared to serve their organization and their customers.

Are you strengthening trust by preparing your employees to handle more information and make better decisions? Are you building these kinds of trust-based partnerships with your employees?

Visit our blog next week to learn the next key behavior for effective Relationship Leadership.

Tags: Five Key Drivers of High Performance, High-Performance Leadership Model, Relationship Leadership

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.