One of my friends and colleagues once told me that I can be scary transparent. I have a tendency to be honest to a fault. People see this transparent honesty as genuine and sincere, as they should. The scary part, as I understand fully is that this level of honesty and transparency is not always easily to handle. Not everyone wants to deal with the truth, and not everyone is ready for it. When I was younger, as in just a couple of years ago, I think that I might at times be too straightforward in sharing my unfiltered thoughts, which could have it’s downside.
In the late 1990’s I was President of GeriMed, a geriatric medical management company. We were discussing a deal with Humana, which would have had us bring our geriatrics model to some of their Medicare managed care markets. We met in their corporate office with one of their executives, Bruce Perkins. I told him that single disease state disease management programs were worthless (which, by the way, the were), and that the proper approach to disease management in older adults was the geriatrics model. What I didn’t realize was that he was the person behind all of Humana’s disease management programs. Needless to say, our development person didn’t talk to me for weeks, as I lost any chance of making a deal with Humana due to my honesty.
On the other hand, being honest and transparent has helped me be a successful leader. People who work for me know that what I tell them is true. When I empower people, they know that it’s real. Like everything, there are good and bad aspects to this. I realize that having confidence in people who work for me can give them confidence. That’s wonderful, but if somehow my confidence is misplaced or inaccurate, I can be leading folks down the wrong path. Of course, that’s life, and we can’t be responsible for all of the unknowns in life.
One thing that I know for sure. When you have confidence in people, and you share that confidence in a sincere and transparent manner, those people will follow you anywhere! Of course, they might follow you over a cliff. Or, they will follow you to the top of the mountain. There is one thing that is certain. When you’re honest and transparent, people know who you are and what they’re getting. I’ll take that over any alternative consequences every day of the week.
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