Can a Good Leader Be Too Candid?

While it is sometimes threatening for others to know what a leader really believes about their skills, performance, and judgment, over time, more transparency and honesty is a net positive. 

When it comes to achieving results and building a cohesive team, a leader’s candor is a real asset. Without honest feedback and candid exchanges, people don’t get better, reach their potential, or form lasting bonds. 

Most team members prefer leaders who are direct and candid. As a rule, team members who desire to excel want to know where they stand and how the leader is viewing them, the team, and the enterprise. 

Those less focused on performance or who are more sensitive to criticism will sometimes place a higher emphasis on other leadership qualities, such as empathy, decisiveness, or inclusiveness over candidness. But even they value the trust, authenticity, and action that candidness generally promotes. 

But some leaders are too candid. 

Like everyone else, leaders can sometimes be insensitive in their views and too critical in their assessments. While people want honesty, they don’t want a leader’s truth to smash them in the head. They prefer candidness to be measured to fit the situation and people involved, and good leaders comply. 

Uncensored honesty is a recipe for hurt feelings and damaged relationships. Good leaders have a filter and do their best not to ruffle feathers with their candid views unless they need to. 

But insensitivity doesn’t fully explain why some candid leaders are appreciated and others are judged poorly. The more common issue for leaders who have developed a highly candid style is one of quantity, not quality. Leaders who offer a running commentary of everything they believe, feel, and think wear people down. When candor is ongoing, unsolicited, and without reservation, it becomes obnoxious. 

Team members find direct and candid leaders highly credible, unless the candor never stops. Leaders who openly share their judgments and evaluations of just about everything turn people off. Their candidness is seen as a weapon of mass destruction that pushes aside anything in its way. 

Colleagues and team members exposed to the onslaught of candid viewpoints on nearly every matter soon learn to stay silent. In an ironic twist, unbridled honesty by the leader produces less candidness from others. 

While good leaders will always have to remain vigilant about being insensitive in their candidness, the most important aspect to guard against is too much candor too often. Leaders who develop a never-ending style of sharing what they really think and feel alienate and push people away. 

Honesty is only the best policy when it comes in reasonable doses.