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Have you ever asked a question at work and once you got the answer, wished you hadn’t?

If so, you might not be the right fit on Martin Gourdeau’s team. He doesn’t do performative transparency in the workplace; it’s a true core value. Martin is the CEO of Vacation Tracker, a fully remote SaaS company with a team distributed across seven countries. He finds that being clear and candid about the status of a business is an effective method for building trust in teams, as well as driving performance.

“There's a way to be transparent and not doomy-gloomy. You can be factual, keep your heads up, stay positive, and have trust and confidence in the plan.”

–      Martin Gourdeau

Key Takeaways:

• True transparency can align people with purpose and improve outcomes.
• Leaders should be able to state the consequences of not meeting a goal.
• Being transparent helps organizations retain the people who are the best fit.
• If you want to introduce transparency in the workplace, start small.
• Invite tough questions. If you don’t know the answer, be sure to follow up.
• Teams can be held accountable for performance, but anything specific to one person is off-limits.

Timestamps:

00:31 Meet Martin, CEO of Vacation Tracker

01:33 Transparency & Energy Management at Vacation Tracker

03:51 Vacation Tracker’s Vacation Policy

04:55 Martin’s Intro to True Transparency at Work

11:57 Transparency Reveals Misalignment on Teams

15:23 Building & Maintaining Transparency

18:07 What Not to Share

20:26 How to Introduce More Transparency at Work

22:49 Transparency & Leadership Qualities

27:18 Getting Clear on Objectives & Priorities

28:27 How Transparency Translates Across Cultures

31:04 What’s Next for Vacation Tracker

32:52 Tacos to Share

Key Topics Discussed:

Amazing Teams, Una Japundza, Martin Gourdeau, transparency in the workplace, company core values, building trust in teams, workplace communication

Mentions:

Website: https://vacationtracker.io/

LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/mgourdeau