Principle of Leadership 9: Keep Your Personnel Informed of the Mission, the Changing Situation, and the Overall Picture

Quick poll for all of you – who likes scraping a bunch of hard work only to start again because your boss didn’t tell you that the project scope changed? Anyone? Bueller?

An easy way to keep moral up is to keep your team informed. Feeling in-the-know is a powerful motivator and one that should not be overlooked by management. No one likes to be the last to find out about something.

But more than working to help motivate your team, keeping your team informed has other benefits as well, like an expanded network of knowledge. Let’s say for example you are planning on growing your team and are about to spend a lot of money to post a role online. If you share this news with your existing staff they may be able to recommend a former colleague or friend that might be a perfect fit for the role thus potentially reducing your recruitment cycle and costs. Or let’s say you are pitching a new client; one that you may not know a lot about – sharing this sort of detail with your team may uncover existing relationships you may be able to leverage.

Keeping your team informed is not only about what they can do for you, but what you can do for them. Leaving your team to spin their wheels in a futile effort is a drain on their productivity and can develop negative feelings about a disorganized management team.

As your business grows, this principle becomes the foundation for your internal communications strategy. Will you run the sort of business that holds regular town halls and updates the company often? Or will your staff suffer from learning about the latest company changes from the media outlets?

Read the other leadership principles:

1. Lead by example
2. Make sound and timely decisions
3. Seek and accept responsibility
4. Achieve professional competence
5. Know your troops and promote their welfare
6. Develop leadership potential in your followers
7. Train your troops as a team and employ them to their capabilities
8. Appreciate your own strengths and weaknesses and pursue self-improvement
9. Keep your team informed of the mission, the changing situation and the overall picture
10. Ensure your followers know your meaning and intent and lead them to the accomplishment of the mission