Re-evaluating Leadership Axioms: Need to Know Info

One of the things that I believe has helped me as a leader is Leading with a growth mindset—embracing that the world of work has changed and will continue to evolve. I am consistently looking to learn and share what I learn.

One thing I have learned that is worth sharing is that leadership practices that were best in class during the Industrial Age can often come across as classless in the age of knowledge workers.

We don’t need to throw out all of these practices; some well know leadership axioms can be slightly modified and still be valuable.

One of the ones I’ve modified is the idea of need to know information. The original meaning

When I started in the workplace, this was commonly used to justify the withholding of information. You would commonly hear things like that information is need to know, or it’s on a need-to-know basis.

Which basically implied we don’t think you need to know. This often actually implied you are not senior enough or important enough or leader enough to know what I know. Sometimes it implied something even worse; it meant I don’t like you enough or trust you enough to tell you what I know.

Where is this idea found?

This axiom is common in environments that have a scarcity mindset.

• One belief of the scarcity mindset crowd is that there is a limited amount of success to be had.

• A second belief is that successful people are the ones who have information no one else has.

These two beliefs combine to create a culture that values information hoarding—believing that by hoarding info, a person will increase their chances of obtaining the limited amount of available success.

This is also often found in environments that push competition rather than collaboration. I love healthy competition, but it is a tightrope to be walked for fear of falling off the edge and going from healthy to harmful.

How I have changed the Axiom:

When I say it’s on a need-to-know basis, what I’m saying is, Team, we need to know what each one of us knows.

So I will go first.

For me to get others to share freely, I must lead by example. It means I must first share what I know. I must go first. I follow the Reed Hastings approach from the book Netflix No Rules Rule. I will share information more quickly and more freely than others might expect. I share freely because I trust that my team is mature enough to do the right things with the information.

If they don’t, I will remind myself that when an individual messes up, it speaks more about that person than it does about the person who trusted them with the information. If someone breaks trust, I learn and treat that person differently in the future. I won't stop sharing information because someone missteps; I adjust my interactions with that person only.

I ask others to share because I hire diverse teams

A diverse team is only valuable if they are allowed to leverage their diversity. Diversity will enable a team to succeed more often, but only when the team leverages each member’s uniqueness. On a diverse team, everyone has unique experiences or skills; knowledge or expertise; or an approach that is part of their uniqueness. In order for diversity to have value, you must allow people to share their uniqueness.

“By openly sharing what everybody knows, we often devise a better approach, a wiser recommendation, or a more comprehensive solution. ”

This also tends to result in getting things more right the first time. This means we don’t have a lot of rework. That is another reason teams led with open communication can move more quickly because they don’t need to redo work when “new” information becomes available. Since all information is need to know and it flows in multiple directions, there are fewer surprises, and fewer surprises means less rework.

Finally, this approach is essential when you believe in delegation.

I need to know what my team knows, and they need to know what I know because I delegate. Delegation allows my teams to get more stuff done and at a quicker pace because they don’t need to seek approval. Instead of my permission, they just need to have a solid business justification to explain why they made the decisions they made. If a logical business rationale exists, I will support them and their position. To enable people to make solid decisions based on business rationale, they need to know what I know; otherwise, I am setting them, me, the team, and the business up for failure.

But I also need to know what they are doing, why, and the expected value. It’s not about micromanaging the work; it’s about being equipped to clear roadblocks and break down barriers, and that goes both ways. We need to be working together to break down resistance into actionable chunks.

Conclusion

So when I say need to know information, I flip this well know axiom by encouraging that all information is need to know, and everyone needs to know all the information. Leaders should model this by going first and encouraging everyone to follow their lead. I will go first and share what I know openly, but then I’m counting on my team to tell me what they know. This goes for facts they know or experiences they’ve had, or knowledge that they can apply.

We all need to share openly because when we operate with shared knowledge, combined expertise and freely leverage our experiences/skills, we get to better solutions, we get to them faster, and we build trust. We all win together, and that winning has no limits, so there is no need to worry about hoarding it; there is plenty of success to go around.