“Being transparent” is a phrase most commonly discussed in interpersonal relationships. Let me share an excerpt from a book entitled “Getting Real” which describes this concept:
“Self-disclosure, synonymous with being transparent, is the ability to reveal to another person what you have done or what you are sensing, feeling, thinking, or saying to yourself at the moment. When you share your thoughts, sensations, feelings, even your judgments “in the interest of transparency,” you are less apt to get caught up in the illusion of control. […] Letting yourself be seen by others is also an important aid to seeing yourself more honestly. It is harder to fool yourself when you are going public about who you are.”
The theory behind total professional transparency is essentially to share information about one’s professional life to allow them to grow even faster.
One major goal of being professionally transparent is to allow colleagues and future colleagues access to information they wouldn’t normally have. For example, performance reviews are not shared with large audiences because of their confidential nature. If I was allowed to share this information, however, colleagues can gain a glimpse into my professional work experience, how my performance was summarized for each time period, and how my performance changes over time.
In theory, my relationship with my colleagues can improve through a common understanding of my professional history, strengths and development opportunities. In addition, future employers can benefit from having greater insight into my past experience. In either case, my professional development can increase that much more rapidly through this common understanding. This is the ultimate goal in sharing this information and being completely professionally transparent.
One major problem with being completely transparent in one’s professional life is that there is a risk that people will misinterpret what is being shared.
This, of course, is understandable and grounded in reality. Having enough context to understand another person’s professional life and experience is extremely difficult. Because of this, the reader is left to form their own opinions about what is being conveyed. Depending upon the objectivity of the reader, feedback can be interpreted as negative or positive.
Perceptions aside, companies are torn between sharing confidential information and allowing associates to be professionally transparent.
For better or worse, companies are forced to protect themselves when it comes to managing their labor pool. That being said, more and more companies are working to expand their transparency efforts by encouraging open dialogue and communication among associates and management, particularly with a goal of improving associate performance. However, they are indeed torn between providing unrestricted sharing of information and protecting their own interests.
In addition, not all companies are equipped to provide useful and grounded feedback for employees.
Each company is different, and many do not follow a formal review process. I am fortunate in that my experiences over the past several years have offered me the opportunity to be involved with such a process.
Having complete transparency in one’s professional life, therefore, may not be realistic at this stage. But, one can still employ useful constructs to become closer to this goal.
Being transparent means that one does not have to worry about presenting a front that masks their development opportunities. Masking / hiding development opportunities can work for a period of time, but they will ultimately surface. By not sharing this information in advance, time that could have been spent further improving is unfortunately wasted.