Have you wondered what creates competitive advantage for a business? People come up with a variety of answers to that question, but seldom think about truth. And, unfortunately, most leaders don’t share truth when it comes to dealing with an individual’s performance. If you don’t share truth, you build your culture and organization on a bad foundation. But, when you share truth, you have a solid foundation that helps dramatically improve individual and organization performance. Building on the foundation of truth helps you engage people to face reality so they can correct mistakes, learn from past performance, and adjust processes. To do that, you need the Moment of Truth tool created by Robert Fritz. It helps change your culture, improve individual performance, and establish a clear standard of reality and truth for you and your organization.
Truth Not Opinion
Seeking truth will help you look for facts rather than making too many assumptions. Our brains are wired to “want to know”, which makes it very easy to guess about everything. When you realize how much you assume and guess, you become more disciplined to observe reality and ask questions. Remember, asking questions is one of the two remarkable skills GR8 Leaders have. Questions coupled with observational listening help you separate guesses from truth or facts. When leaders rely primarily on assumptions, they hurt the people, the organization, and themselves.
Truth is the Essential Foundation
Truth plays a critical role in personnel performance. And, research provides that people can handle the truth and do better when it is shared. In fact, people want the negative feedback that most managers are not willing to share. Obviously, when you share truth, you are not doing it to be mean. It is just the opposite, you value them enough to develop them. When you share truth with mercy, you let people know you value them. You also benefit yourself and the high performers when you share truth with those not performing.
Truth Encourages Excellence
When you share truth with the value of caring for people, you change your culture. You become a GR8 Leader. Too often fear of sharing the truth prevents you from helping people. The emotional conflict that you think will happen, prevents candor and clarity. Truth is critical for developing the best in those you are managing or leading. If you master the four steps of Reality, Story, Plan and Feedback, you will enhance employee performance and learning. And, you fulfill a critical role required of leaders.