The Leader Sets the Standard for Open Honest Communication

I was speaking with an old colleague, Martin Grant, recently about the culture on his site. He told me about a morning meeting they run daily. One of the tradies spoke up in front of the group and said he was concerned he hadn’t taken an oil sample correctly. He admitted he had rushed it and didn’t follow the procedure properly. He was worried it could come back contaminated, it could trigger unnecessary investigation, waste time, and cost money, and he wanted the team to know. In the end, it turned out fine but that’s not the point.

The point is that he felt comfortable enough to say it in the first place. No defensiveness, no hiding it, no waiting to see if anyone noticed. I said how amazing to have a culture like that because without such openness things get hidden and become breakdowns or cause problems down the track. I asked Martin how he created a culture where someone would say that so openly.

He said it started with him. He made a point of sharing his own mistakes, especially the ones that cost time or money. Organisational errors, decisions that didn’t land well, things he got wrong. Martin does not hide them from the team but rather share them to set the example and enable a culture of openness.

The Culture That Exists In Many Organisations

Leaders say they want openness but what they actually create caution.

• People don’t speak up unless they’re sure
• Problems get softened or delayed
• Mistakes are hidden or explained away
• Meetings become status updates, not real open conversations

And over time, the team learns: “It’s safer not to say anything.”

What Actually Works

If you want a team that surfaces real problems, which can only be resolved if they are in the open, the leader has to go first. The leader must do it not once but consistently.

That means:

• Sharing your own mistakes openly
• Calling out when something you did didn’t work (But also sharing what you are doing to prevent it from happening again to show you are continually learning as well)
• Asking others to share openly when you know about a problem that occurred and you can provide positive feedback to the person for being open

This does two things It removes the fear and it sets the standard because the team watches what you do far more than what you say. It also reinforces a culture of continuous improvement.

When leaders are open:

• Problems get raised earlier
• Issues get reported honestly

This enables issues to be fixed before they grow and improvement actually becomes possible.

The Principle

If people don’t feel safe to speak up, problems don’t go away, they just go underground and once they’re hidden, they keep repeating. Leaders don’t create openness by asking for it they create it by demonstrating it.

When was the last time you openly shared a mistake you made with your team and how you were fixing it… and what did that signal to them?