Permission to Speak Freely: How the Best Leaders Cultivate a Culture of Candor [Paperback]

Lead So Your People Speak Freely

Candid communication enhances innovation, ownership, engagement, and performance. The benefits of hearing questions and uncertainties, good and bad ideas, and honest feedback are game-changing. Yet research shows that most of the time, people never share their true thoughts with each other—and especially not with their leaders.

But what if they did? What if everyone could confidently communicate without fearing a negative response? InPermission to Speak Freely, highly acclaimed leader developers Doug Crandall and Matt Kincaid illustrate the benefits of candor, explain the inhibitors that cause it to feel unsafe, and provide tools for leaders to encourage their people and embed trust and openness into the foundation of their organizational culture.Contents
Forewordby Shann Ray Ferch, PhD vii
Introduction: How Speaking Freely Helped Bring a
Championship to Seattle 1
PART ONE:
WHAT LEADERS NEED TO HEAR
1: Questions and Uncertainties 11
2:  Great Ideas and Terrible Ones 21
3:  Feedback and Concerns 27 

PART TWO: THE PROBLEM 

4:  Leaders Impede Communication 35
5:  A Leader’s Power Suffocates 45 

6:  People Fear Judgment 53 

7:  Rejection Leads to Fatigue 65
PART THREE: HOW TO CULTIVATE
A CULTURE OF CANDOR
8:  Assume Positive Intent 73 

9:  Prove It’s Safe 93 

10:  Dignify Every Try 105

11:  Be Genuinely Curious 117
12:  The Promised Land 133
Notes147
Index151
About the Authors157“Permission to Speak Freelyis a rare leadership book that entertains and educates. The stories are memorable, the research is meaningful, and the takeaways are immediately actionable.”
—Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals