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Transparency in corporate governance

Transparency in corporate governance

Transparency is a culture that is built into the company like trust; cultivated with honesty is likely to bear fruits of loyalty from one’s team.
Corporate Governance is loosely defined by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) as the relationship between the Board and management.
What of Small and Medium businesses where the director is the manager?
Business ownership is like social media personalities, we see the smiles and picket fences, seldom do we see the tearful reality that one could be living with.
In my days as a CEO of an Accounting Firm I would at times delay paying salaries. The embarrassment from an unpaid salary is immeasurable. During these hard days I would sometimes stay away from the office just because I could not face my team. I persistently blamed the cash flows I expected from my clients, completely missed the point that the situation was an opportunity for honesty and planting seeds of loyalty. This created a ‘them against me’ treaty that was hard to break and sipped through our further interactions.
Transparency means taking employees into confidence. Shifting the focus from one’s own guilt – guilt from knowing one should not be in this situation to begin with.
A good budget and cash resource planning saves the business, the owner, and the team from these embarrassing situations. And if one defaults at good business management; honesty and openness in time saves the day. This is what good teams are made of.
Now in Corporate Governance Practice, I see too often CEO’s in annoyance preparing reports with Board member X in mind to respond to his questions pre-emptively and manage him; all the while member Y withholds value adding information because he, member Y can no longer trust the Board managing CEO and his team.
Transparency reflects in what we do, plays out in how we engage one another in the workplace. That is part of what sets apart healthy from unhealthy organisational cultures.
Transparency is a culture that is built into the company like trust; cultivated with honesty is likely to bear fruits of loyalty from one’s team.
Corporate Governance is loosely defined by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) as the relationship between the Board and management.
What of Small and Medium businesses where the director is the manager?
Business ownership is like social media personalities, we see the smiles and picket fences, seldom do we see the tearful reality that one could be living with.
In my days as a CEO of an Accounting Firm I would at times delay paying salaries. The embarrassment from an unpaid salary is immeasurable. During these hard days I would sometimes stay away from the office just because I could not face my team. I persistently blamed the cash flows I expected from my clients, completely missed the point that the situation was an opportunity for honesty and planting seeds of loyalty. This created a ‘them against me’ treaty that was hard to break and sipped through our further interactions.
Transparency means taking employees into confidence. Shifting the focus from one’s own guilt – guilt from knowing one should not be in this situation to begin with.
A good budget and cash resource planning saves the business, the owner, and the team from these embarrassing situations. And if one defaults at good business management; honesty and openness in time saves the day. This is what good teams are made of.
Now in Corporate Governance Practice, I see too often CEO’s in annoyance preparing reports with Board member X in mind to respond to his questions pre-emptively and manage him; all the while member Y withholds value adding information because he, member Y can no longer trust the Board managing CEO and his team.
Transparency reflects in what we do, plays out in how we engage one another in the workplace. That is part of what sets apart healthy from unhealthy organisational cultures.

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