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news kindly so people don’t get unnecessarily hurt. It certainly is not easy
to do this, and it is likely to take considerable practice to get good at it.

Exercise 12: Assessing Your Attitude about Transparency

The following is a checklist that each individual in the organization can take to
help assess if they’re on the right track to transparency: 108

__ Are you candid, honest and do you genuinely express your thoughts and
opinions?
__ Does the message you are delivering remain the same, regardless of the
audience?
__ Do you tell the truth in difficult situations?
__ When you can’t divulge information, do you let people know why you can’t
disclose the information at that time?
__ Do you consistently keep commitments?
__ Do you handle your own defeats well, owning them and not blaming others?
__ Do you ask good questions, listen to the answers and remain open to new
ideas?
__ Do you value the feedback of others?
__ Do you frequently ask others working with you, “How am I doing?” or, “What
could I do to better support you?”

Righting Wrongs

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to

bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection
and even of actual sin. Thomas Aquinas.

A strong leader is always interested in making things right when he or she
is wrong. The courage to admit error is characteristic of a leader who
recognizes that lessons generated by failure are as valuable as those that

come from success.

108 Peter Barron Stark, “What Is Transparent Leadership?: http://www.peterstark.com/2011/transparent-
leadership-2/.

David Kolzow 91