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Posted On
01/01/2010

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My Goal: More Transparent Leaders in 2010. Are You One?


As we begin 2010, my goal is to encourage leaders to become more transparent.  I’ve said many times that in the digital age, Google is less about “search” than “reputation management.”  In an online, instant information world, it’s virtually impossible to hide anything.  The drunk driving arrest in college, the bankruptcy, or your missed child support payments, will all likely surface in an online search.  Many leaders from religion, business, and government have been brought low as a result of
unexpected documents or photographs that came up online.  “To Google” has become part of the vocabulary.

I visited one pastor who pulled me aside and said, “It would be better if you didn’t mention my yacht to any of my church members.  I don’t think they’d understand.”   I told him he was living in the stone age.  I said it would only take a reasonably intelligent high school kid on “Google Earth” about 10 minutes to not only find out about the yacht, but have a satellite photo of the boat sitting at the dock.

It’s important to note that it’s not just about being caught, it’s about doing the right thing. Al Johnson, writing over at the Brazen Careerist, created a great list of differences between a transparent leader and a non-transparent leader.  As we launch into 2010, let’s see where we stand:

A transparent leader says what’s on their mind,
A non-transparent leader says what others want to hear.

A transparent leader is consistent in their actions and reactions,
A non-transparent leader is inconsistent in their actions and reactions.

A transparent leader is honest and admits when they need help,
A non-transparent leader attempts to cover up flaws or the need for help.

A transparent leader supports bold claims with bold supporting action,
A non-transparent leader says one thing and then turns around and does another.

A transparent leader is honest and openly communicates,
A non-transparent leader will lie and withhold information that should be shared.

Based on the five examples above, are you a transparent leader?

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 11:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://vintom.com Vin Thomas

    Thanks for the challenge. I think it is difficult to be transparent. Transparency often equals vulnerablity. I think we need to be willing to be exposed and vulnerable even when it is uncomfortable.

    I will join you in this goal in 2010.

  • Bart Breen

    What does it say about Christian Ministries who have to be told to be transparent because it’s necessary now for Public Image management?

    Whatever happened to leading by example because something is morally right and to live as if everything said in private will be shouted from the roof tops whether it is or not?

  • Mary Hutchinson

     Transparent?  The church has become less of a community that knows and loves each other’s warts and helps each other through them, to a collection of people wearing masks and acting like we all have it together.

    Yes, we see it in leaders, but also in the pews.

    And because that is how we are in the pews, we demand our leaders to become our own view of “perfect”.

    If there is something I am looking for in 2010 it is friends that will allow me to be transparent, call me on my issues and help me work through them–like the Church is supposed to do– And still love me.

     

    (Thank you, John Lynch and the TrueFaced gag)

  • Steve Snediker

    Thank you for laying down the gauntlet, Phil… Let’s see if the Church can man-up to this challenge.

  • http://twitter.com/ConserValidity cris

    Dave, Googles practices have in many cases skewed to the Leftist point of view. See for yous Yesterday Google removed all negative and derogatory references when the word Islam was entered.  However it do you do the same thing the entering the word Christianity of Judaism. Please look at the phrase suggestions which appear after you type in the Words I have listen

     

    Just as egregious  is Google actions to mislead the uniformed on the Constitutionally 10 year required Census requirments


    Please type Constitution Census into Google

    You will find: that the top listed links are disgraceful! They purposefully attempt to mislead the uninformed, by fraudulently claiming that the Constitution specifies that Citizens as well as non-citizens are to be counted in census.

    Read more: Census http://law.jrank.org/pages/5097/Census.html#ixzz0bjrkqQWq



    The Constitution does not address this because the founders could never have imagined a situation where our Federal Government would have willfully disregarded immigration laws and unlawfully allowed millions of illegal inhabitants into our Nation.

    Furthermore; the only thing which can be deemed relevant to the question is the Claus, immediately preceding mention of the census, in the the same, Section II of Article I of the Constitution-which clearly does not support counting illegal aliens in the US Census:

    Clause 2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

    Sincerely,

    Cris Angelini
    NY,NY


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