Ron Heifetz, co-founder of Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, is quoted as saying, “Purposeful honesty and appropriate transparency at all levels are eventual indicators of your organization’s adaptability and ability to thrive.”
What leaders listen to – i.e. honor – matters. One of your team want to share a juicy morsel? Stop them before they blurt out more. If lies, gossip, spurious chatter of any sort is tolerated at the top (of any size “heap”), that lack of judgment drives the true organizational values of the organization.
Honesty and transparency go hand-in-glove with discernment. You want your leadership to be meaningful in the workplace? Your core values real? Then be known as a discerning leader who won’t participate in any form of gossip.
Proverbs 29:12 (MSG) When a leader listens to malicious gossip, all the workers get infected with evil.