Growing Transparency Requires Authenticity

No doubt that the world is getting more transparent and the pace of the transparency is increasing every day. Want to know something about someone, a product, a company, or almost anything? There are an increasing number of ways to get that information online.

What does this mean for the CEO of an expansion stage company? My sense is that transparency brings even more of a need for authenticity, as lack of authenticity is more and more clear to your customers and employees.

One of the great ways to have authenticity is to have a clear set of Aspirations (mission, vision, and values) that your senior management team fully vets, shares, and is committed to delivering against. Then, base your major strategic and minor operating decisions on how aligned the decision is with your aspirations.

If you have great aspirations and you align your decisions with them throughout the organization, your aspirations will serve as a “North Star”, whereby you can evaluate what direction that you need to go given the current state of your company to get to that North Star.

Making decisions this way will help you to be true to your aspirations and will allow you to communicate your aspirations and then live up to them…this is true authenticity!

Living your aspirations also helps you execute your business growth strategies and is a very powerful asset when you are looking for venture funding or you start executing your company exit strategy.

Most companies have gotten away with a lack of shared aspirations in the past, the growing transparency requires authenticity and authenticity requires living consistent Aspirations!