“I believe in radical transparency. I share everything with my team. No secrets, no hidden agendas, complete openness about our strategy, our challenges, our thinking process.”
This sounds noble. It feels collaborative. It appears to build trust through complete honesty.
But there’s a problem: when you share everything, you give away your strategic advantage. When everyone knows everything you’re thinking, you lose the ability to surprise, adapt, or maneuver when circumstances change.
I learned this lesson during a period when I was managing a complex product launch while trying to be the most transparent leader I could be. I shared every concern, every strategic consideration, every backup plan, and every uncertainty with my team. I told them about budget concerns I was having with leadership. I explained my worries about the timeline. I walked them through every decision tree I was considering for different scenarios.
I thought I was building trust through honesty. I thought transparency would create alignment and shared ownership. I thought people would appreciate being treated like full partners in the decision-making process.
Instead, what happened was chaos. Team members started reaching out to my manager about the budget concerns I’d shared, creating problems where none existed yet. They began second-guessing decisions based on uncertainties I was still working through. They started offering solutions to problems I was already handling through channels they didn’t know about.
Worse, when we hit a critical decision point, I needed to pivot our approach quickly. But because I’d shared all my previous thinking, the team couldn’t understand why we were changing direction. They questioned my judgment because they’d seen all my internal deliberation and uncertainty.
Don’t overshare. Keep something up your sleeve.
Modern workplace culture glorifies radical transparency. Leaders who share every detail are praised as “authentic.” Teams that operate with complete openness are celebrated as “high-trust.” But transparency isn’t always strategic. Complete openness can actually harm your ability to lead effectively and create the outcomes you want.
When you share all your thinking, people can predict your moves and counter them. When you reveal all your concerns, you transfer your anxiety to others without solving underlying problems. When you expose all your strategies, you lose the element of surprise that makes strategies effective. When you overshare your uncertainties, you undermine confidence in your leadership.
You can be honest without being completely open. You can build trust without sharing every thought and concern. People don’t need to know everything to trust you. They need to know you’ll be honest about what matters to them and follow through on your commitments.
Because leadership isn’t just about having good ideas and honest intentions. It’s about being able to implement those ideas successfully. And successful implementation often requires keeping something up your sleeve.