Embracing Candor

Happy Thursday all,

Today I want to focus on establishing a culture that is transformative by embracing and modeling doing what’s right, doing it well, and leading with an enterprise mindset. 

As employees, we should hold each other accountable to:

1. Embracing Candor
2. Do What’s Right
3. Be Great at Execution
4. Learn and Grow
5. Champion diversity, equity and inclusion
6. Build High Performing Teams (Managers)

So let's talk about Embracing Candor for a moment. 

Embracing candor is more than just being direct in communication and responding in kind.  It is truly being clear, concise and honest in communication. 

Team members should:

• Speak Up
• Be Specific
• Respect Others
• Tune In
• Invite Ideas

Candor is essential as it allows us to have challenging conversations and operate within an organization that embraces creative tension and respectful debate and dialogue.  This includes understanding how to balance tenacity and passion in communications so that trust can be established.

Embracing candor is NOT permission to say be brutally honest, it is being direct AND respectful, challenging and caring personally, transparency AND empathy – there is power in the AND.

Candor is not just about talking; it’s about listening as well.  Communication is key in all directions

Speaking up, holding yourself and others accountable, and being able to discuss sensitive topics whether they be work topics, social injustice or cultural issues is part of living an authentic life. 

Additional resources that I would recommend:

• Dare to disagree: Margaret Heffernan [TED Talk; 13 minutes] Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but good disagreement is central to progress. Margaret illustrates how the best partners aren’t echo chambers -- and how great relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree.
• The power of vulnerability: Brené Brown [TED Talk; 21 minutes]  Trust and vulnerability are key elements to candor. Brené Brown shares insights from her research on human connection and being vulnerable.
• How to Say Anything to Anyone [Business Book Summary; 15 minutes] The author makes the case that candor is missing in the workplace. By being more candid, businesspeople can create effective and open business relationships.

For a deeper dive into candor, below are some suggested book titles:

• Radical Candor / Kim Scott
• The Culture Code: the secrets of highly successful groups / Daniel Coyle
• The Speed of Trust / Stephen Covey
• Permission to Speak Freely : How the Best Leaders Cultivate a Culture of Candor (eBook, 2017)
• Ethicability / Roger Steare
• Has the West Lost it / Kishore Mabhubani
• The Era of Darkness / Shashi Tharoor

Looking forward to enabling and engaging in culture that embraces creative tension and respectful debate and dialogue. 

Happy Thursday all,

-srt

P.S. Just a postscript in reflection … I am excited to be able to share that today is my mom’s 83rd birthday.  Many of you hear me recite the wisdom that I have received from my mom through the years (“Sandyisms”).  As I reflect on today, I consider myself so lucky to be able to take her to dinner tonight and while we won’t have 83 candles (fire regulations at the restaurant – lol), we will have a wonderful night enjoying each other’s company and celebrating another day on this wonderful planet of ours.  Extending this to each of you and my wish that you take a moment and look at your family and, if you have them, kiss your kids (or pets / plants) and reflect on the joy to just exist today.  😊 

How to Embrace Candor

Happy Spring!

The rain has slowed, the bulbs are a bloom and our resident Canadian Geese (George and Martha) have four goslings following them around.  If that doesn’t scream S P R I N G, I don’t know what does. 

I am surprised that March is over, it was an action-packed month.  Seriously, the ISO 20022 readiness and release, a quick run to Charlotte, a Soroptimist Awards Ceremony where we gave out scholarships to three women, and a volunteer event celebrating over 800 volunteers for FieldHaven Feline Center (where I serve on the Board of Directors).  I am grateful for the busyness, as some of you know this is the first year anniversary of losing my sister, and her birthday week without the ISO release would have been very hard.  Grateful to many of you, who remembered and gave me some additional patience and grace during this time. 

Embracing Candor

This past week I have begun to have first quarter performance conversations with the full-time employees.  These conversations are essential to ensure everyone understands what they will be measured on and also receive real-time feedback for the quarter. 

One of the objectives that always feels hard to document is Objective Two:  Living the Wells Fargo Expectations.  The 2023 Expectations are Wells Fargo’s way of focusing on a culture that is transformative by embracing and modeling doing what’s right, doing it well and leading with an enterprise mindset. 

The six attributes within the expectations are:

1. Embracing Candor
2. Do What’s Right
3. Be Great at Execution
4. Learn and Grow
5. Champion diversity, equity and inclusion

6. Build High Performing Teams (Managers)

Next week, we will dive deeper into Embrace Candor, but today I challenge all to open the 2023 Expectations and do a personal assessment. 

• Are you embracing respectful debate and dialogue?  If so, you are embracing candor.
• If you see a problem, do you take ownership or get support to make things right? If so, you are modeling "doing what’s right".
• Do you strive to simplify transactions and end-to-end processing?  If so, you are showing others how to be great at execution.
• Are you tenacious in overcoming obstacles? If so, you are modeling to learn and grow.
• Do you speak up, share your unique voice, and encourage ideas that challenge your own thinking?  If so, you are advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Happy Spring and Happy Thursday all,

-srt