The T word

My second favourite T word (other than T for my son, Thomas) is transparency. It might not be the sexiest word out there, but the power of transparency is regularly underestimated. In my view, leaders need to ensure that every decision, every move that they make, is made under a banner of complete transparency.

Often, in both personal and business relationships, a key word that gets used to measure a relationship is trust. I think it works a little differently though. While I believe trust is imperative to have a truly healthy relationship, the value of transparency must always come before trust, as ultimately my belief is that trust is built on transparency. It is only through real, unfettered transparency, that trust can truly be built.

As many people know, My Food Bag was one of many businesses impacted by a potential product contamination earlier this week. However, what most people don’t know is that we were only 7% of the total batch. As part of our beliefs My Food Bag puts “Our foodies at the heart of every decision we make”. So for us it’s simple, we act with complete transparency immediately.

At the end of the day, we believe that by doing right by our customer, we’ll do right by our team and our business. Building a culture of transparency inside an organisation that wants to ensure long-term success is absolutely critical. I believe that transparency and success are entwined.

At My Food Bag, this is innate in our DNA and is a cornerstone of how we lead and manage our people and the situations we find ourselves in. I’d challenge individuals and other businesses to think about how you can apply transparency as part of your day-to-day operations and decision making.