Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and golajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven nineteen. Today's episode comes directly from a
Speaker 2: listener message I received from Charlotte in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Speaker 2: First off, Charlotte, thank you. Messages like yours mean more
Speaker 2: to me than you probably realize. One of the coolest
Speaker 2: things about this podcast is hearing from leaders around the
Speaker 2: world and realizing that leadership struggles are often universal, different countries,
Speaker 2: different industries, different cultures, same human problems. And Charlotte asked
Speaker 2: a fantastic stick question, how do leaders strike the balance
Speaker 2: between transparency, confidentiality and information sharing. When should leaders inform
Speaker 2: the team and when should they not? That question, right there,
Speaker 2: separates casual management from serious leadership because one of the
Speaker 2: hardest parts of leadership is realizing that you often know
Speaker 2: more than you can say, and if you handle that poorly,
Speaker 2: your organization starts to fracture. So I want to start
Speaker 2: with this truth. Leadership is not secrecy. Leadership is not gossip.
Speaker 2: Leadership is not radical transparency either. Real leadership is controlled communication,
Speaker 2: and there's a massive difference. I've watched organizations collapse because
Speaker 2: leaders shared too little information. People felt excluded, suspicious, disconnected,
Speaker 2: and eventually distrustful. And I've also watched organizations implode because
Speaker 2: because leaders shared too much information, internal discussions leaked, sensitive
Speaker 2: personal matters spread across the organization. Strategic conversations became public
Speaker 2: before decisions were finalized, and employees became anxious because they
Speaker 2: were given partial information without context. Both extremes create damage.
Speaker 2: One creates darkness, the other creates chaos. Your job as
Speaker 2: a leader is to manage the flow of information responsibly.
Speaker 2: And think about flying an airplane for a minute. Passengers
Speaker 2: deserve information, They deserve honesty, They deserve calm communication. But
Speaker 2: imagine if the pilot came over the intercom every ninety
Speaker 2: seconds and shared every mechanical fluctuation, every instrument reading, every
Speaker 2: concern being discussed in the cockpit. People would panic. And
Speaker 2: now imagine the opposite, massive turbulence, strange noises, diversion to
Speaker 2: another airport, and the pilot says out absolutely nothing. People
Speaker 2: would panic there too. The best pilots communicate clearly, calmly,
Speaker 2: and intentionally, and leadership works exactly the same way. One
Speaker 2: of the biggest mistakes leaders make is confusing transparency with
Speaker 2: unrestricted access. Your employees do not need access to every discussion.
Speaker 2: They do not need access to every executive disagreement. They
Speaker 2: do not need access to every disciplinary conversation. They do
Speaker 2: not need access to private HR issues, and they do
Speaker 2: not need access to legal strategy. That's not secrecy. That
Speaker 2: is responsibility. There are things leaders are ethically obligated to protect.
Speaker 2: Confidentiality matters, and I think modern leadership culture sometimes struggles
Speaker 2: with this because social media has conditioned people to expect
Speaker 2: instant access to everything, but leadership requires filters. Here's the
Speaker 2: framework I use. Before sharing information, ask yourself for questions. First,
Speaker 2: is it true? Second? Is it necessary?
Speaker 1: Third?
Speaker 2: Is this the right timing? And fourth does sharing this
Speaker 2: help the mission or hurt the mission? That fourth question
Speaker 2: matters a lot because some information creates clarity, some information
Speaker 2: creates confusion, some information creates fear, some information creates distraction.
Speaker 2: Not every truth needs immediate distribution. Sometimes leaders share information
Speaker 2: too early because they feel pressured to look transparent, and
Speaker 2: that can backfire badly. For example, imagine leadership is discussing
Speaker 2: a possible restructuring. Nothing is finalized, nothing is approve, no
Speaker 2: decisions have been made. Then a leader tells employees, hey,
Speaker 2: there may be layoffs coming, but we don't know. And
Speaker 2: what happens next? Rumors explode, Productivity drops, employees panic, people
Speaker 2: start updating resumes, The culture shifts overnight, and the worst part,
Speaker 2: the thing being discussed may never happen. Leaders have to
Speaker 2: understand that information carries emotional weight. Words move people. Now,
Speaker 2: let's flip the situation. Sometimes leaders wait too long to communicate,
Speaker 2: and that creates another problem. Silence creates stories, and humans
Speaker 2: are experts at filling information gaps with fear. When employees
Speaker 2: feel ignored or intentionally left in the dark, they begin
Speaker 2: building narratives. They must be hiding something. They don't trust us.
Speaker 2: This place is falling apart, and once that emotional distrust begins,
Speaker 2: it becomes very difficult to repair. So what's the balance.
Speaker 2: The balance is this, share what people need in order
Speaker 2: to perform, prepare and trust. Protect what must remain private, incomplete,
Speaker 2: or ethically confidential. That's the line. One thing I've learned
Speaker 2: over nearly three decades in emergency services. Is that timing
Speaker 2: matters as much as content. During a major incident, we
Speaker 2: often cannot release every detail immediately, not because we're hiding things,
Speaker 2: because accuracy matters. Leaders damage credibility when they communicate emotionally
Speaker 2: instead of operationally. Sometimes the most responsible answer a leader
Speaker 2: can give is I'm aware of the situation. We're still
Speaker 2: gathering information. I will update everyone when we can do
Speaker 2: so accurately. That is not weak leadership. That is discipline leadership.
Speaker 2: And another important piece here is understanding levels of leadership.
Speaker 2: Different leadership levels require different levels of information access. Your
Speaker 2: executive team may need strategic information, your supervisors may need
Speaker 2: operational information, your frontline employees may need tactical information. That's
Speaker 2: not favoritism. That is organizational structure. I think where leaders
Speaker 2: get into trouble is when they start using confidential information
Speaker 2: as power currency. And that's dangerous. You've seen these leaders before,
Speaker 2: the ones who hint at secret information to appear important,
Speaker 2: the ones who selectively leak things to manipulate people, the
Speaker 2: ones who create inner circles and outsider groups, and that
Speaker 2: destroys culture. Fast information should never become a social weapon.
Speaker 2: Great leaders create trust through consistency, and if your team
Speaker 2: knows you communicate honestly, protect confidentiality appropriately, and avoid games,
Speaker 2: they will usually give you grace during uncertain moments. And
Speaker 2: here's something else leaders need to hear. Transparency does not
Speaker 2: mean emotional dumping. Your employees are not your therapists. There's
Speaker 2: a difference between being human and emotionally flooding your team
Speaker 2: with stress, fear, and executive level burdens that they cannot control.
Speaker 2: Sometimes leadership means carrying weight quietly, not forever, not dishonestly,
Speaker 2: but responsibly. There are moments when your team needs stability
Speaker 2: more than access, and one of the best leadership communication
Speaker 2: habits you can develop is proactive updates, Even small updates matter.
Speaker 2: People handle difficult truths better than uncertain silence. If employees no,
Speaker 2: we don't have final answers yet, but we have not
Speaker 2: forgotten about this issue and another update is coming Friday.
Speaker 2: That alone reduces anxiety. Communication creates psychological stability, And Charlotte,
Speaker 2: I think your question really gets to the heart of
Speaker 2: something deeper. Leadership communication is not about saying everything. It
Speaker 2: is about saying the right things at the right time,
Speaker 2: to the right people, for the right reasons. That's the art.
Speaker 2: The best leaders are not the loudest communicators. They are
Speaker 2: the clearest communicators. They know when to speak, they know
Speaker 2: when to wait, They know what belongs in the room,
Speaker 2: and they know what belongs outside the room. That balance
Speaker 2: takes maturity, it takes discipline, and honestly, sometimes it takes
Speaker 2: standing alone with information that cannot yet be shared while
Speaker 2: still carrying the responsibility of leading everyone forward. That's leadership.
Speaker 2: So Charlotte, thank you again for sending that message from Colombo,
Speaker 2: Sri Lanka. Questions like yours are exactly why this podcast exists.
Speaker 2: Leadership is rarely black and white. Most of the time,
Speaker 2: it lives in the gray areas where judgment, trust, timing,
Speaker 2: and responsibility all collide together. To everyone listening today, remember this.
Speaker 2: Your words as a leader shape culture long before policies do.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.