Transparency:  Using open communication to be easily known and understood

Understanding true thoughts, feelings, and desires + communicating openly and honestly = transparency

Transparency requires:

Vulnerability: To be vulnerable is to reveal your thoughts and emotions in order to have authentic relationships.  Transparency requires being open, even though you may not be accepted or appreciated for your real self.

Courage: Transparency requires having the courage to reveal who you are and being brave enough to welcome criticism.  Willingness to accept positive and negative feedback increases self-awareness.

Self-awareness: Transparency is knowing what is truly in your own heart, owning it, and letting it be seen.  It is impossible without self-awareness; understanding and expressing the truth about yourself.

Being transparent is a powerful thing.  If you can be honest with yourself and others, you can increase your confidence and improve your interactions.  Transparent leaders have teams with a deeper sense of respect, trust, loyalty, and motivation because decisions and actions are communicated and understood.

“There is no persuasiveness more effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a sincere life.”

-Joseph Barber Lightfoot

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