Productivity = truth + kindness

I've had a great reaction to the latest Beyond Busy podcast episode, with the highly passionate and compassionate David McQueen. I've known Dave a long time and he always brings his thoughtful A-game to everything he does. People really loved the little snippet of our conversation I put on my instagram where Dave talks about going in to Uber and doing a keynote where he starts by saying "let's face up to the truth: your boss is trash!".

I think the reason it resonated is that a lot of business culture is about hiding from the truth. In my travels through businesses I've seen some incredible cognitive dissonance over the years: Certain people getting an easier ride than others (or bad behaviour being ignored) because of their talent or status; brands that are clearly killing the planet high-fiving each other for saving it; impressive offices and meaningless awards hiding the fact that no-one there knows the answers either; people ignoring the notion that profitability is a driving force... There are countless examples where the truth is actively avoided.

Of course, truth is often hard to hear. No one likes to be the bearer of bad news, especially of personal bad news, like someone's poor performance, a change in direction, or conflict. That's where truth also needs kindness.

I've been talking to a lot of people about kindness recently. My basic thesis is that kindness in leadership and in business is massively underrated, because people mistake it for a softness or lack of focus. I think this is totally wrong. Creating a culture in your team or organisation that leads with kindness leads, in turn, to empathy and trust. And when we really sit back and analyse everything, trust is the central fuel of all business. Trust is why we work harder for a good boss, it's how we feel empowered to contribute our challenging ideas or out-on-a-limb pieces of creativity. And without the trust of customers, a brand or business is soon dead.

One of Think Productive's five core values is "trust and kindness are our rocketfuel". Working in a way that gives people respect and autonomy and allows people to be themselves at work is key. It creates the conditions that allow us to ask each other the hard questions, challenge everything we do and keep ourselves accountable, relevant and productive. Hard questions and hard truths are an important part of the game - now more than ever before.

It's not a choice between truth and kindness. Dave's message to Uber wasn't simply "your leaders are trash, so pack up and go home". Quite the opposite. His message was caveated and couched in a spirit of radical kindness. Everyone has the choice to move forward in a way that sets a path to a better culture and ultimately a more successful organisation. But it's difficult to make that choice unless you first acknowledge the hard truths of where you're at.

So here's a question for the week ahead:

"what truth are you pretending not to know?"

Be kind to yourself.