Pamela Field, chief executive of Stetson, believes in truth in the workplace. She shares her viewpoint in a recent New York Times Corner Office interview with writer Adam Bryant.
Her conviction in honesty stems from an experience as a manger at Avon in the early days of her career. Field says she wouldn’t let her staff in on the steps to attaining goals, and the people on her team had a meeting to tell her the truth about her lack of managerial skills. She is thankful to these coworkers not only for teaching her how to articulate goals with a step-by-step approach, but for the larger truth she gained form this conversation. “The lesson I learned, which I think has made a big difference for me, is the importance of telling the truth, and being in an environment where truth-telling is valued, just the way these women came to me and told me the truth about what I had done. I vowed to create an environment in which truth was important. And you know, it takes a lot of spine to tell the truth, especially in a large organization, where obfuscation is a political skill that I don’t have,” says Field.
Field has been a consultant for roughly 20 companies, and being an outsider means it has been easier to tell the truth. She has also learned the value of what she calls the “Hillary Clinton listening tour.” For the beginning three weeks at every job, she spends time with everyone, asking questions such as “What’s stopping you from being successful … What is working for you that you wish you could build on?” Then she writes a report and shares this information with her client.
Field also takes a novel approach to backing up her team members. She always tells her staff “that if something goes wrong, it’s my problem; if something goes right, it’s their success.” This works on a few levels. First, people don’t fear telling her the truth; if people think she has a crazy idea, they tell her that. If people know they won’t be blamed for a problem, they are more willing to bring up an issue. And it takes away the “individual performance” conundrum, meaning it’s not about what you did wrong, and you can try for difficult goals and it is OK to fail because Field will “take the bullet.” Lastly, Field recognizes her employees for what they do right, which doesn’t always happen in the corporate world. Again, Field says it best: “The point is to make people feel safe and make them feel like they have a chance of recognition.”
Does your company have a culture of trust? How can you make sure your employees feel safe enough to tell the truth? And how can you make sure your staff is recognized for all the ways they do their jobs well?
