A common tool explored in detail in the New World Leadership™ program is Honesty Before Kindness Always.

This simple statement does not tell the whole story.  The only way leaders can be truly honest and create positive outcomes is if they have completed a deep and reflective consideration of their intention.  If, while being honest, their true intention is to convince others that their views and opinions are the correct ones or to make another person wrong and themselves right, they are not likely to have a meaningful valuable dialogue.  In fact, they are likely to invoke negative emotions and negative responses such as defensiveness and blaming which, of course, links to the victim mindset.  If we change the statement to “Honesty + Positive Intention = Kindness,” we can create a completely different story.  We can now create an environment where people feel safe to be honest with one another.  If I am honest and monitor my intention, I am more likely to be successful. 

For example, if my intention is to share a different viewpoint from a neutral place or to impart additional information, then my intention will be received more openly.  If I need to share some observations about performance and my intention is that I truly care about the employee and their success, then I can be honest with positive intention, creating a safe space for the employee to reflect.  The employee will feel the leader’s positive energy and will be more likely to really reflect and be more open to exploration of the issue.

We desperately need more honesty in the corporate word.  Without the key reflection on the leader’s intention, we will continue to isolate people and reduce performance due to an ego-based need to be right.  Our continued willingness to really do the hard work as leaders is essential to moving into the new energy accountability framework.