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Competency Coordinates: Sharing Information

Offering help to stakeholders, expressing appreciation of good results, sharing lessons learnt from errors and other relevant experiences, presenting and clarifying details about projects

Why should you share (not hide) information?

  • Many of us agree that information is power. Importantly, this assumption is often paired with the assumption that withholding (not sharing) information is having power, and that sharing (not withholding) is losing power. There is a theory that withholding information can give a strategic advantage or defense barrier over
    colleagues and employees. Research shows exactly the opposite, that knowledge withholding backfires, reducing experience learning and growth and increasing psychological unsafety and mistrust.
  • A particularly important instance of knowledge-withholding is the knowledge-withholding of personal performance errors. Most people believe that we should learn from our errors, but human cognition is constantly working towards a positive self-image, hiding, justifying and discounting our own errors. The consequence of this is that, managers, by constantly presenting an idealized version of themselves, substantially hinder growth and separate themselves from others.
  • Recent research points that, contrary to the popular belief about the importance of leaders’ strength and power, leaders’ vulnerability has a substantial impact on team performance. Small things like telling the truth, asking for help or admitting errors can go a long way into promoting a grounded leadership style.

Do you know how the appreciation for good results can impact your team?

  • Most people agree that sharing performance feedback is important for performance improvement. However, research shows that employees are resistant to receive feedback, leaders are resistant to give feedback and that performance feedback performance feedback is not strongly associated with performance improvement.
  • Effective performance feedback requires thoughtful and insightful construction, namely, providing behavioral information, establishing the association with facts and data, balancing performance positives and negatives, and identifying the specific impacts of performance, to give a few examples.
  • A particularly important dimension of effective performance feedback is expressing appreciation for good results! Leaders often are afraid that positive feedback will generate unrealistic expectations on team members. But research shows the opposite – appreciation in a healthy communication context (as the one promoted by effective performance feedback) improves relatedness and team members’ internal motivation.

How to master information sharing

1. Excel at performance feedback

A substantial part of team communication is (formally or informally) about performance – what you did, how you did, why you did. Make those interactions count and use small but impactful feedback tips:

  • Learn from the Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodal HBR IdeaCast on “What managers got wrong about feedback”: https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/04/what-managers-get-wrong-about-feedback
  • Also, Jennifer Porter gives 5 tips about how to accomplish strategic development feedback on a recent HBR paper named “How to Give Feedback People Can Actually Use”: https://hbr.org/2017/10/how-to-givefeedback-people-can-actually-use

2. Value your performance errors

  • Human cognition works towards positive self-image and justifies our personal errors. Learn how to understand this constant force and (to some extent) overcome it in your benefit in the Carol Travis and Elliot Aronson book named “Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)”.
  • Learn what is vulnerability and that strength means sharing (and not hiding) your vulnerabilities. Start with Brené Brown’s inspiring TED on “The Power of Vulnerability”: https://brenebrown.com/videos/ted-talk-thepower-of-vulnerability/.

References
  • Edmondson, A. C., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2020). Today’s Leaders Need Vulnerability, Not Bravado. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/10/todays-leaders-need-vulnerability-not-bravado?autocomplete=true
  • Jiang, Z. J. (2019). Why Withholding Information at Work Won’t Give You an Advantage. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/11/why-withholding-information-at-work-wont-give-you-an-advantage?autocomplete=
  • Porter, J. (2017). How to Give Feedback People Can Actually Use. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/10/how-to-give-feedback-people-can-actually-use
  • Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 47–54