MC69 Transparency in management: Balancing openness and discretion
Release Date: 12/11/2023
MC93 Knowing When to Move On - our final episode
Management Café
Yes, this is Tim and Pilar's last episode, so we talk about moving on and the importance of wrapping things up. Interview with Andy Gotts photographer that Pilar mentions: Find out more about Pilar and Bree’s book on loneliness in remote teams:
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MC92 Manager Mindset: Perfectionism
Management Café
In this episode, hosts Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti talk about the dangers of being a perfectionist when managing a team, and why it's different to being a perfectionist individual contributor. (And you'll hear for yourself how neither Tim nor Pilar are perfectionists...)
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MC91 Manager Mindset: Loyalty
Management Café
Hosts Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti have a good chat about the nature of loyalty, who we should be loyal to at work and what happens when we get the balance wrong.
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A quick thank you and we'll be back next year!
Management Café
Have an excellent start to 2025 - from Tim and Pilar.
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MC90 Manager Mindset: Pessimism
Management Café
Who knew that talking about pessimism could be so much fun... even if most of the laughter is self-deprecating. In today's episode, hosts Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti talk about what happens when we let our "inner pessimist" come through. For more information, visit
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MC89 Manager Mindset: Comparison
Management Café
The new series on Manager Mindsets starts with a discussion of comparison. Comparison is unavoidable, especially in the age of social media. It can feed difficult and unpleasant emotions like doubt, jealousy and imposter syndrome. Indeed, someone once said “Comparison is the thief of joy”. And if we aren’t careful comparison can even tempt us into mindlessly copying others, which takes us away from our own unique path. But in many aspects comparison can be helpful. It can be wonderfully motivating. It can show us what can be improved and help us understand what we value. It can even...
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MC88 Feedback, Mindset vs Cognitive Tendencies and Long-Covid Awareness
Management Café
As co-hosts Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti wrap up the Manager Emotions series, they explain why they're moving onto mindset, and how this is different from cognitivie tendencies (and why they might well be mixing the two up!). Plus, some feedback on our episode on Emotional Contagion, and Pilar shares an episode from Workplace Geeks where one of her connections talks about living with long-covid and how this affects her work life. Get in touch with Pilar and Tim through the
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MC87 Manager Emotions: Confusion
Management Café
Our hosts Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti talk about the many times they've been confused, the difficulties in feeling the emotion as individual and manager, and what happens when a team member becomes confused.
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MC86 Manager Emotions: Compassion
Management Café
For the sixth episode of our series on manager emotions, Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti talk about Compassion. Good leaders don't just remove obstacles and show their people the way forward. People also need to know that their leaders will support them in the hard times. And importantly, they need leaders to demonstrate compassion when they are in difficulty. This is distinct from sympathy - where the leader might acknowledge someone is suffering but not do anything to help or even really align with their emotions. Empathy is closer - it helps when leaders can demonstrate that they...
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MC85 Manager Emotions: Pride
Management Café
Welcome to the fifth episode of our series on manager emotions, where hosts Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti talk about Pride. We want to see good work, both in ourselves as managers and also in the teams that we lead. Pride creates a virtuous cycle that rewards and encourages healthy achievement. Do a good thing -> share this achievement with others -> receive recognition -> feel proud -> do more good things. But pride can be a tricky emotion in the workplace. Excessive displays of pride can turn people off. Pride can also clash with other attributes, most notably humility....
info_outlineManagers sit at the crux of organisational transparency and discretion. They need their employees and organisations to share information with them and are regularly deciding what to pass on and what to keep confidential. It's a tough balance. People need the right information to feel secure and do their job, but too much information can be overwhelming.
Context and alignment are essential. Ideally managers want a match between their own desired level of transparency and their company's overall appetite for openness. Having these out of sync can be a recipe for disaster.
This episode is packed with anecdotes from our hosts on the good, bad and ugly of transparency in management.
00:30 mins The values of transparency within an organisation influence how we operate in terms of our openness and discretion. And managers especially need to be aware of, and stay in sync with, those organisational norms and expectations.
2:30 Openness and honesty are important elements of trust. But discretion is also an important part of the manager's toolkit. Tim shares an example of how his application of discretion changed during his time as a manager.
4:40 It's important to be explicit about confidentiality. Both the person disclosing and the person receiving information should be aware of whether they want something kept confidential, and whether it can be kept that way. Observing confidentiality is a key part of the psychological contract between employee and manager. Managers should ensure their behaviour is clear and consistent so that their employees feel secure when disclosing information to them.
7:50 It can get tricky when deciding how much of our personal opinions we should share. For example, if we disagree with an organisational decision, is it right to share that with our team? As always, it depends.
9:00 In her book Powerful, Patty McCord said "People can hear almost anything if it's true". In this quote she was primarily referring to feedback, but she built a notably open culture at Netflix.
9:50 If people think we are hiding more information than we need to, it creates a culture of secrecy. This lack of openness can lead to "How could this have happened here?" type scandals.
10:30 Tim talks about a recent time he chose not to share important context with an employee. Pilar points out that our desire to protect our employees from suffering will sometimes cause them greater suffering.
12:50 One of the big problems with withholding information is that people's imagination will almost always create a scenario that is worse than the reality. For example when Pilar didn't get feedback from a manager she created her own narrative.
15:00 Too much transparency from a manager can overwhelm employees. One of Tim's friends was very transparent when considering selling his company. But he regretted doing this because ultimately it wasn't their decision. Tim took the opposite pathway and still feels conflicted about it.
17:50 Some good questions to ask yourself before sharing something: "How does it help them? Does this give them more agency?".
18:45 Tim has previously over-shared with employees about issues he was having with his peers. Which didn't help the employees and damaged company culture.
20:00 Even in a transparent culture we still want safety.
21:20 Transparency has to be a two way street. Our organisation and managers need to demonstrate the same level of transparency that they ask of their employees.
23:00 Our hosts break the fourth wall.
What about you, dear listener? What is some of your good, bad and ugly with regards to transparency? We'd love to hear from you!
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