8 Signs Your Staff Is Afraid To Be Honest With You

You might tell your finance employees, “Just be honest with me.”

But could you ever fathom the thought that they’re afraid to be honest with you (or any other leaders within your organization.

Unfortunately, it’s a reality. More than half of employees say they didn’t feel able to share their opinions freely in the workplace at least some of the time over the last 12 months, according to research from ISS.

Whenever a manager feels the need to cajole an employee into being honest, there’s a larger problem at hand aside from guilty fibs or little white lies.

Top Signs Employees Are Afraid to Be Honest

Employees — and perhaps most especially finance pros — won’t tell you they can’t be honest. So you want to look for the signs you aren’t getting the full story. Here are signs they’re a bit afraid to speak up. Employees:

1. Avoid you and difficult conversations
2. Are excessively polite and agreeable
3. Don’t come to you for help
4. Don’t share new ideas
5. Seldom — if ever — are critical of your decisions
6. Don’t share much about their personal lives
7. Don’t make eye contact, and
8. Aren’t collaborative or engaged.

Why Employees Are Afraid to Be Honest

So why are employees afraid to be honest?

According to research in the Harvard Business Review, employees are most often afraid to be honest or speak up because they fear:

• Social rejection
• Repercussions that would damage their reputation
• Damage to their personal standing
• Negative effects on their upward mobility, and
• Putting their job at risk.

And a University of Pennsylvania study further found employees don’t speak up or be totally honest because they:

• Fear being ostracized
• Don’t want to be embarrassed
• Want to avoid negative remarks, and
• Feel like speaking up is inappropriate.

Of course, that’s not the kind of environment you want in your department or company.

“Creating a positive workplace culture where everybody feels safe is not a one-off activity. It requires constant consideration and should play a major role in every workplace decision, process and solution,” says Corinna Refsgaard, former Group Chief People & Culture Officer at ISS. “Dealing with this is critical for both individuals and businesses. The good thing is that there is much more we can do to increase psychological safety and well-being in the workplace.”

To that, here are four strategies to get finance employees to be honest with you so you can build a better culture.

Counterbalance Blind Optimism

Many companies pride themselves on their optimistic, can-do cultures. Their motto is “It’s all good,” even when it really isn’t.

So when someone ventures a more realistic perspective, they might be admonished for not being a team player and told to “get on board.”

Finance leaders can counterbalance the message from higher-ups by letting your team know that bad stuff happens sometimes, and when it does, they should feel free to tell you.

Emphasize that coming forward when they feel something is wrong won’t hurt their job security or chances to get ahead.

Set the Tone for Genuine Honesty

If your team constantly gets the message that negative opinions, questions or concerns are best left unsaid, a lot could go wrong right under your nose that would have otherwise been avoided if you’d just encouraged your team to speak up.

Otherwise, employees could be hiding real problems that could end up putting your entire department – and by extension, the company’s well-being – at risk.

Even if the upper execs push a positive-only atmosphere, department leaders should be the front-line sounding board for employees.

Tell employees both in meetings and one-on-one that when you open the floor for questions, you really mean it. Encourage them not to be afraid of being the bearer of bad news.

Address the Elephants in the Room

Bring up the uncomfortable thing on everyone’s mind with your team — the proverbial elephant in the room. It could have to do with an exceptionally poor profit year, a failed project, a sudden round of layoffs or a large group of employees leaving.

You know everyone knows what’s going on; they’re just too gun-shy to say it.

It’s common to feel helpless in one of these bad work situations. But as the leader, you have enough clout to tell employees that it’s OK to express themselves honestly and say what’s on their minds.

Instead of clamming up, open up with your team. Get them to talk about what happened and if they have anything to say about it – and encourage them to be honest about their reactions.

Foster a Culture of Trust

Employees must trust you and each other not to dismiss honest opinions out of hand, and not vilify those who tell it like it is.

When that’s understood, a culture of openness can flourish, and your staff can work more productively and cohesively together.

A company’s success depends greatly on honest, frank feedback from employees who aren’t afraid to give it. Problems always come up, but when they are raised in a culture that’s open to honesty, they can be met head-on.