Consistently Open & Honest: Communication as a Key Cultural Component

Open and Honest Communication sounds simple. Most leadership teams would probably tell you they already do it. But being open and being honest require two very different disciplines.

When we are open, we put aside what we think, feel, and need long enough to truly take in the signal someone else is sending. When we are honest, we are willing to clearly say what we think, feel, and need. We need both, and this distinction is important for leaders to understand.

The focus of this article is how open and honest communication can contribute to the overall health of your company. This style of communication is deliberate and challenges your team to set aside their own conversational agendas so they can truly hear and see the person they are speaking with. Open is about receiving. Honest is about sending. With that foundation, three practices help bring open and honest communication into our culture: share, surface, and repeat.

Gino Wickman built open communication as a primary component of the EOS Worldwide framework he created. And over twenty-five years later, he’s still teaching it. During his recent keynote at the 2026 EOS Conference, Gino declared that remaining open and honest as a leader is “at the core of running and building a great company.”

Great Communicators Honestly Share

Honest communication starts with sharing. I know that sounds obvious, but leaders often underestimate how much information they carry that never makes it beyond the leadership team.

You know why a decision was made. You know what has changed in the market. You know why a priority moved, why a new person was hired, why a number matters, or why the company is heading in a particular direction. You have probably been thinking about it for weeks, but the rest of the organization may be hearing it for the first time, which can create space for a communication gap.

Being honest with your team doesn’t mean they have to know everything, but a good leader should challenge themselves to ask a simple question: Is there a good reason I am not sharing this, or have I simply not made communication a priority?

Asking yourself this question encourages more honest communication. But sharing is only half of the equation; leaders also need to remain open to the signals their team is sending.

A proven communication model that encourages openness and honesty is Level 5 Listening. The simple idea is that someone else’s signal has to get through our noise. This model encourages us to quiet our internal noise so we can truly understand the signals the other person is sending. When leaders quiet their own assumptions, opinions, emotions, desire to respond, need to be right, or instinct to solve the problem, they begin to hear and receive at a much deeper level. They can now “hear” more than what’s being said—the signal also includes tone, silence, facial expressions, body language, and energy.

A nonverbal signal is information. It isn’t necessarily truth. If someone gets quiet, I can notice that signal. If I decide they are angry or disagree with me, I’ve now created an assumption. That is where curiosity becomes important. Chris Voss encourages communicators to “go verbal” when someone’s words don’t match their body language. For example, you may say, “I noticed you got quiet when we made that decision. What are you thinking?” or “You seem frustrated. Am I reading that correctly?”

Great communicators hear and see beyond the words being spoken to them. They can set their own agendas aside and remain open and honest. Within the EOS® framework, you’ll have regular meeting rhythms with your direct reports and those you lead, including Quarterly Conversations. These off-site meetings are a chance to check in, and they start with two simple questions: “What’s working?” and “What’s not working?” When these meetings are run well, and you remain open and honest, your team will feel heard, seen, and valued.

Great Communicators Surface Issues

Sharing information is only part of open and honest communication. The other part is remaining open to what your team shares back with you and creating a culture where they are comfortable doing so. This is where real progress is made, especially when someone disagrees with a decision, notices a problem, or believes a priority is off track. Leaders need to create a culture that invites this type of dialogue, because your team will often spot issues that you won’t. But, if they aren’t comfortable communicating with you, those issues might remain unsolved.

As an EOS Implementer, I see this all the time. A team member notices a problem but assumes the leadership team already knows about it or convinces themselves it’s not their problem. A person disagrees with something said in a meeting but just nods their head and lets the meeting progress. Everyone knows a process is broken, but nobody wants to be the one to bring it up.

The cost of this silence begins to compound, and before long, small problems become large ones, frustrations turn into resentment, and leadership teams make decisions without all the needed information. A healthy culture makes surfacing issues normal, and that starts with open and honest communication, from the top down.

EOS® takes this idea seriously. The Issues List is designed to capture problems, obstacles, opportunities, and ideas rather than allowing them to live in hallway conversations or inside someone’s head. EOS Worldwide goes so far as to say, “A strong Issues List means an honest company.” When a team is open and honest, its members are comfortable identifying, defining, and solving critical business issues together.

The word “issue” has gotten a bad rap in the English language. Having “issues” is not a sign of a weak or failing business. However, being unwilling to talk about them is. Solving issues is what moves your company forward, and it starts with open and honest communication. The EOS® Issues List is an important part of the weekly L10 agenda, and this is another example of how EOS® tools keep companies aligned.

Great Communicators Repeat What Matters

If leaders are guilty of one thing, it’s assumption. We’ve all done it. We’ve thought about something for so long, worked out scenarios and plans and processes, and then when our mind is made up, we communicate the resolution to the team. Once. Maybe twice. And then we assume everything is properly working, the process is being followed, and everyone is moving in the same direction.

You announced the annual goals in January. You reviewed the Core Values during onboarding. You sent the email. So, why are we still talking about this? Have you ever wondered (or said) that?

Patrick Lencioni describes one of the core disciplines of organizational health as overcommunicating clarity. The idea is simple: once leaders are clear about the organization’s direction and priorities, they must communicate that clarity repeatedly rather than assuming everyone understood and retained it the first time.

Repetition can feel unnecessary to the person doing the communicating because that person is usually much closer to the information.

Think back to the last time you solved a big issue with your leadership team. You likely spent weeks or months developing a new initiative before announcing it. You had debates, revisions, and built a plan to cascade the message to your team. By the time you share it with your team, you’re ready to put the issue to bed, but your employees are just getting started. They literally just heard about it. Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you are tired of repeating something important, there is a good chance your organization is just beginning to hear it.

A Healthy Pattern for Communicating Openly and Honestly

Sharing, surfacing issues, and repeating what matters are practical ways to build a culture of open and honest communication. When communicating with a team member, use this simple pattern:

Notice the signal → Get curious → Go verbal → Test your assumptions.

Being open requires us to turn down our own noise long enough to receive someone else’s signal. Being honest requires us to clearly send our signal. And when the signal isn’t clear, don’t assume. Get curious. Go verbal. Test what you think you heard. That’s how the truth gets into the room. And when the truth gets into the room, teams can actually do something with it.

If you want to learn more about how EOS® can help provide structure to your business and move your culture in the right direction, let’s talk.