Are you transparent?

Life is a funny old game!  It is so interesting how one experience can shed light on another totally unrelated issue.  I am talking about transparency!!

My blog post is coming to you 3 days late because one of my student boarders had a succession of very violent fits on Friday.  It was a totally horrendous and frantic experience which I won’t go into detail that brought to light one thing – he is epileptic.  The thing is his epilepsy was not indicated anywhere on his admission papers, either with his school or with me as his UK host parent.  In addition to this, this student has decided not to tell his parents so far of these recent episodes because he is scared of being “sent back home.” 

But this has flagged up a lot of issues because of his lack of transparency, and more importantly we have begun not to trust him, and believe what he says.  As he is only 16 I am taking the stance that his inexperience in life makes him think that it is a good idea to hide things, but I am trying to explain to him that not being transparent can have a far-reaching negative effect than he cannot comprehend at this point.

This actually made me think a lot about my business and the transparency that some people like or dislike.  Especially in the use of social networks, and marketing in general.  Some people tend to draw a much larger gap between their personal and business lives than others.  But more and more and more as prospects, clients and colleagues we are demanding and expecting an increasing level of transparency between the business and the person. 

• As a VA I would never tell a client I know a piece of software if I don’t.  I can say that I have heard about it, that I know what it does, that I am willing to learn it, but to say that I know it just to get a client is unfair to me and the prospect.  Some VAs find this level of transparency uncomfortable, and maybe downright foolish, because they believe that you should "lie" to secure the contract. 

• I read a blog post recently about ghost-tweeting, i.e. employing your staff to tweet as if they are you.  There is a strong debate in the social networking world about this, but honestly from my opinion there are so many workarounds, i.e. have staff tweet on behalf of the business instead, that it does not make sense to alienate prospects or lose trust in this way.

I know that there is a level of fear in the result of being transparent, with the main one being “maybe they won’t like me.”  But isn’t it better for people to like the real you and not a fake you?  For my student his fear is that he will be sent back home, and I have told him that this might happen but there will always be other doors open to him.  For a VA who is honest about her skill level the fear is that the client will not wish to partner with her, but doesn’t this just leave the door open for the ideal client?

I know I have just touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to transparency, trust, integrity and honesty.  But I just wanted to share with you what I learnt this weekend.  What do you think about the concept of transparency, and how do you work towards bringing this into your business?

Comments

[Heather Villa]

I feel that the issue with your boarder is more along the lines of honesty, which you have figured out since you now feel that you can't trust him. Him not being honest about his health issue could have life threatening consequences for him, which is hard for the young to truly understand.

Honesty is always the best policy, in your personal life as well as in business. I feel that integrity is something that is greatly lacking in the world in general and we all should make strides toward correcting this in our sphere of influence.

[Petra]

Hi Heather

Thank you for your comment, and what I agree with is that for the young it is hard to get the whole truth thing. I did tell my boarder that when he is 35 he will look back and understand what I am trying to do.

Yep and the sphere of influence is what I am working on. Thanks for adding your thoughts.

[Layne]

People want to deal with people they like and trust. Transparency is about being honest and genuine. People don't want to know absolutely everything about you, but that the information you reveal shows responsibility and care to your associations.

Revealing information about your health is understandable when you want to be secretive to a certain extent because we have seen the repercussions of losing opportunities.

Ultimately, it's important to disclose information that reveals your honesty and the value you hold to your responsibility in your relationships.

Thank you for sharing.
Layne