Lighthouse Leadership Weekly #100: Hidden costs, Measuring Your Word, Pros & Cons of Side Hustles, and more…

Have you ever hid behind HR speak? Ever make a mistake and use legalese to cover instead of apologize?

The fear and temptation to do that can be very strong. You don’t want to get sued, you’re worried about them being upset or retaliating, or your lawyer or HR department literally told you to do it this way or else.

Unfortunately, this approach can cause a lot of damage.

The hidden cost of corporate-speak.

A lot of the most important feedback you can receive is never heard by you.

But it is heard by many others.

For example, a friend of mine had a job offer pulled 3 days before she was supposed to start. She had already given notice at her old job and was excited and ready to get started.

They gave her a vague explanation and left her to figure things out on her own.

On one hand, the company may think they dodged a bullet; she quietly accepted the bad news, and it’s on her to figure out the next steps in her life.

But there’s real damage; she’s told many people about this bad experience. The hiring manager and the company both now have a negative mark on their reputation that will have people warning others against applying there for years to come.

The dog that didn’t bark.

This is the dirty secret to these kinds of mistakes:

• You don’t know about the great candidate who never applied.
• You don’t notice all the people who now won’t share your job postings.
• You don’t know who may be making a purchasing decision for your product and recall how your company treated their friend.

This is how you lose deals, and great talent, without realizing it.

So next time you’re tempted to use HR-speak or legalese instead of being honest, consider if it’s really worth the long term reputational damage.

As we head into the holidays, we have some great bite-size leadership content for you. Let’s dive in…

Table of contents:

• Read More