Oftentimes, we encounter the popular adage that what we perceive is merely the tip of the iceberg, hinting at the vast depths concealed beneath the surface. However, it becomes evident that intentional omissions of pertinent details can lead to unforeseen consequences and leave us perplexed. In the realm of leadership, such practices are unequivocally frowned upon. Today, host John Laurito illuminates the significance of sharing comprehensive narratives, be it in delegating tasks to your employees, presenting proposals, or simply engaging in storytelling. The key lies in meticulously ensuring that not a single crucial detail is left unshared. By weaving a tapestry of transparency, leaders can foster trust, inspire confidence, and engender a sense of inclusion among their team members. In doing so, they cultivate an environment where surprises and guesswork are replaced by clarity and understanding.
[0:00] Intro
[0:34] Here’s another story…
[3:55] Oftentimes, people are not told the whole story
[9:30] A leader’s job is to let people know the full story
[10:06] Outro
Get a copy of “Tomorrow’s Leader” on Amazon.
John Over the last two decades, I’ve been in an insatiable quest to learn everything I can about leadership, what makes the best leaders so good after running companies small and large over the last 20 years. Today, I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question.
John My name’s John Laurito. I’m your host, and I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this very topic and what makes the best leader so good. Welcome to Tomorrow’s leader. All right. Welcome to the show, tomorrow’s Leaders. Um, once again, back with another story for you from my Mexican Adventure den in Porter Verta.
John All right, lots of leadership lessons from that trip. I will tell you that. So this was another funny, interesting, weird situation that happened that. Wow. There’s just so many good leadership stuff in this. So my kids and I, I told you last, uh, episode about the, the excursions that we went on and stuff like that.
John Well, one of these excursions was actually really, really cool. It was like, you’re, you’re taking this, um, oh, what do you call it? Those zip lines, and you’re, you’re, you’re taking the zip line off of like the top of a mountain and you’re going into. The water. So you, you end, you start at the top of the mountain or kind of, you know, very, very high up and you, you take the zip line and you, you land in this, in the, the water, and then you, you know, swim to the side and get out, blah, blah, blah.
John And so we’re like, oh, absolutely, that looks fantastic. So, you know, we’re going there, we’re getting all set up. You know, they give you the, they give you the. Helmet and stuff, and the life vest and all that kind of stuff. Uh, you sign your life away and all that. And, um, as we’re getting ready to go, we’re next in line.
John And this, uh, girl comes up who is like really, really upset and she’s talking to the operator who, the ride operator or whatever, the girl checking us, saying who’s right in front of us. And she’s talking in Spanish. So I don’t understand anything she’s saying, but I can clearly tell she’s upset. Now, thankfully, Nick and Sky know Spanish.
John They’ve taken it for many, many years and. So I asked guys, I said, what, what’s she talking about? What’s going on? And, and Sky says, well, she’s like in a lot of pain. She got bit or stung by a jellyfish out there. I’m like, jellyfish, what the, and um, and so the lady who’s who’s checking us in says, yeah, you know, we’ve had, we’ve actually had a lot of jellyfish and.
John It depends on the time of the year and everything like that. But, but yeah, today is, is has been especially bad. I said, we’re like, really? Like how, how bad? I’m not really looking forward to getting stung by a jellyfish. I said, well, you know, it’s been pretty bad. I said, well, you know, what’s the jellyfish success rate?
John Like? I mean, you know what portion, percentage of the people are getting stung by jellyfish? She says, well, uh, it’s like probably five or six out of 10. I said, out of 10, what? Wait, six out of 10, you’re saying six out of 10 people get stung by jellyfish. What, and she kind of starts laughing and I said, are you being for real?
John Like, is that, are you joking or is that literally for real, is what you’re saying? She said, no, you know, it’s probably somewhere around that and I’m looking at the people in line. There’s probably 10 of us in line. I said, so what you’re saying, just so I’m clear on this, is. Of the 10 of us here, six of us are about to get stung by jellyfish.
John Is that really what you’re saying? She said, well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s not that high. I’m like, no, wait too late. You already said you already got that out. Uh, even if it’s five at a 10 or four outta 10, I thought you were gonna say five or six out of a hundred. Five or six out of 10. I’m like, isn’t that important information?
John Like had this girl not come up and, and been writhing in pain, we wouldn’t know that. You weren’t gonna tell us that. That’s really pretty critical information. Right? Um, so I’m thinking, you know, it’s interesting that how many times people are not given the whole picture. They’re not told the whole story.
John This is a such a critical leadership thing, right? Because if you think about it, What that impacts directly is trust level. Right. So now I’m, if I, I’m, I’m assuming that there’s other things that I don’t know, right? That if this was a critical thing that I really should have been told and told earlier before we’re signing up and getting our vests on, and literally the next one that’s in line.
John If they left that critical piece of information out, what else did they leave out? Like what else did they not telling us? And this is, this is how companies operate all the time, right? This is how companies can lose trust in their employees, associates, leaders. When they don’t tell the full story, when you leave stuff out, that’s really critical.
John Uh, it is ultimately eroding trust. And what happens is that ultimately is not just, it’s not just trust. It’s it’s, and that affects influence, that affects everything. And so my feelings toward that person are soured, right? Because. Let’s say I went into there and did get stung by jellyfish and I didn’t know anything about it, and then I came to find out afterwards that yeah, this was kind of a known thing and they should have told us.
John Then it’s even worse then It’s not only lack of trust, but I’m furious. Right. I’m, I’m really upset. There’s all kinds of feelings, animosity, resentment, everything. So we ask sometimes our people to go through really difficult things and challenging situations and change and go through all kinds of unique circumstances that really test them.
John It’s stretching their comfort zone. It’s such stepping outside their comfort zone. And what a leader has to do is really be very transparent and lay out everything for them, not just the good stuff. Because if you sell, so to speak, based on, Hey, here’s all the great stuff that’s gonna come at the end of the road, but you’re not telling them about the challenges along the way so they can anticipate it, then again, you’re gonna lose trust and you’re gonna lose influence.
John You’re gonna lose, ultimately, you’re gonna lose the ability, the relationship that you have with that person, right? And that ability, that culture of your organization is gonna start to change. You know, it’s interesting. I’ve always. Another vacation store, but I was out, uh, on, on another trip one time. Uh, and, and the resort had a deal.
John I remember this where you basically were given, if you booked the resort there, I booked your trip there at this resort, they would give you like, I forget it was like 1500 bucks or 2000 bucks of resort credit to be used in this huge, huge, huge resort. Uh, the spa, the skiff shops, restaurants, all this kind of stuff.
John And, um, I’m thinking, wow, that’s like pretty significant. Great. And now, now that probably wasn’t the reason that we booked it there, but that was. Part of it. I mean that, that, I shouldn’t say part of it, but that was an added benefit to it. That certainly made it easy. And that might have been the tipping point.
John I, I can’t remember this a few years ago and other vacation with my kiddos. And, uh, I remember it was interesting that when we started, the first time we went to go use the credits, it was in a store, like one of their surf shop or something we’re getting bathing suits or something. And, um, they then filled us in on another part of it that you could only use.
John 50% of the credit toward the purchase price. So if it was a hundred dollars item, you could only use 50 of it toward the purchase price. Oh, okay. Well, I didn’t realize that that wasn’t explained at that time. Uh, okay. You know, not, not that big of a deal. Um, but, you know, that probably should have been explained upfront.
John Um, and then as we began to like use the credits, what we realized that they did is, Is, it really wasn’t a deal because they took the prices and they jacked them up so that instead of that, the, that bathing suit costing $50, it was now listed for a hundred bucks and you were using the resort credit for 50 and still paying outta pocket for 50 bucks, so you really weren’t getting any kind of deal.
John This money was really kind of just monopoly money, right? It wasn’t actually. Going toward reducing the price of anything. And I’m thinking, and this was actually a big national, uh, global chain. So it’s like, okay, do you really need to do that? Because what happens is when, when. When that trust is broken, it’s not just the individual.
John So it wasn’t just the girl who was signing us up for the jellyfish adventure. Um, it was, it, it really tainted our whole impression and, and lost trust in the whole organization. We’re thinking that, okay, is this like, How the whole operation runs. Like if we go do the scuba diving or they’re not gonna tell us that the, you know, air meter is not always accurate and you know, we’re gonna find out other stuff.
John You can’t help but assume and have that blanket feeling right. And this is another situation. So in that resort example, well, it wasn’t just the person, I’m sure the marketing department that put that together, but it really gives us a little bit of a sour taste in our mouth about the whole brand, right?
John That whole resort. So is it really worth it? Right? So a leader’s job is, you’ve got to let people know the full story. You have to, um, that’s key, right? Otherwise, you’re gonna lose trust. You’re gonna sacrifice and you’re gonna overcome, you’re gonna, uh, help on the short term, but ultimately you’re gonna lose that, that long term relationship and trust and credibility.
John So in any event, get the wheels turning on that. Quick story, quick thought, quick ideas, uh, tell the full story. So with that said, I hope you have a great day today.
John As always, like, subscribe. Go down below and leave a five star review and we’ll see you next time. Thanks everybody. Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader for suggestions or inquiries about having me at your next event, or personal coaching, reach me at john@johnlaurito.com. Thanks, lead on!
