How honest should you be with your boss?

I have met many people who dislike their boss intensely. They are often frustrated by the behaviour of their boss, but they don’t say anything, and their boss is oblivious to the subordinate’s feelings. Should honesty be the best policy then? As a subordinate should you make your feelings clear to your boss?

Honesty may be the best policy but telling your boss the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth could amount to career suicide. I’m sure many of us have heard of someone who told their boss exactly ‘how they felt’ only to find themselves side lined or overlooked for promotion at a later date.

The majority of people avoid saying anything to their boss, they simply keep their head down and until some point in the future when they decide to leave. This reinforces the old adage that people don’t work for (or leave) their organisation, they work for (or leave) their boss.

Bosses often complain that their staff don’t tell them the whole truth. I remember when I was a director with Johnson Matthey, I was often frustrated by a number of my staff as they wouldn’t tell me exactly what was going on. However, I was far more concerned about the business than my own position or ego, and I did really want to know what my staff thought so that we could change things and make improvements.

However, I recognised that for my staff to want to tell me the truth, they needed to feel safe. One of the ways that I enabled my staff to feel safe was to explicitly ask for feedback on specific issues. I started to ask questions such as ‘what could I do that would make your job easier and you more productive? By listening and acting on the feedback I was given I slowly built greater trust between us. This paid dividends as they started to discuss more issues with me that between us we resolved for the benefit of the business.

Trust is vital for openness and honesty in a boss and subordinate relationship, and ultimately it is the responsibility of the boss to demonstrate that they are trustworthy and wont just ‘shoot the messenger’.