Silence Is Not Always Golden: Breaking the Barriers of Silence in Business

Do you remember your parents ever saying “silence is golden”?

In other words, when the children have gone to bed and there’s quiet in the house, it’s just bliss.

As a parent myself, when the kids were much younger, I can relate to this.

But what about when it comes to your business? In that case, silence may not always be golden.

As owners and managers, we say we want feedback from our employees and peers; but when we receive it, how do we react?

It’s human to get offended and therefore defensive when we receive negative feedback. We tend initially not to see it as an opportunity to learn something new about ourselves.

And when we see someone else that oftentimes delusional about their view of themselves or their ideas, we remain silent, perhaps for fear that we’ll upset them.

Just like when Simon Cowell tells a participant on The X-Factor that they can’t sing, the reaction from the audience says it all – it’s not good to say things as it is.

In that situation where the participant’s parents, siblings, and relatives have not told them the truth, what’s the right thing to do?

Should we allow the person to continue throughout their life believing that they’re going to be an amazing, successful singer and encourage them along the way, or should we tell them early on to lower their expectations?

And on the other hand, when we see something that is wrong or we feel it’s not the right thing to do morally, we keep quiet.

So let’s take a look at three types of silence that are detrimental to your organisation:

Organisational Silence

Morrison and Milliken define Organisational Silence as a behavioural choice that can deteriorate organisational performance.

Employees often have ideas, information, and opinions for constructive ways to improve work and organisations. Sometimes these employees express their ideas, information, and opinions; and other times they remain silent and withhold their views.

The effects of organisational silence are detrimental to organisations often causing an escalating level of dissatisfaction among employees. This manifests in absenteeism, low productivity, and turnover. It kills innovation and results in poorly planned and executed projects, low morale, and a damaged bottom line. This attitude can also affect the well-being of employees, with some developing depression and other health problems.

Managers are said to create a climate of silence in an organisation due to their fear of receiving negative feedback, especially from subordinates. Another factor is that managers often believe employees are self-interested and untrustworthy, and will therefore discourage upward communication.

In the research conducted, we found that supervisors’ attitudes toward silence were the strongest predictor of silence behavior. This means that employees may formulate silent behavior based on how they perceive their supervisors’ attitudes toward expressing opinions.

So when it comes to your organisation; how much are your managers encouraging and receptive to feedback, opinions, ideas, and views from their team? How can open and honest feedback be improved in your organisation?

Willful Blindness

The term “Willful Blindness” describes a situation in law where a person intentionally keeps himself or herself unaware of facts that would render him or her liable, to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act.

In order words, the person intentionally turns a blind eye to an ethical problem and subsequently pleads ignorant of facts.

Perhaps what will come to mind for you will be the movie, Erin Brockovich starring Julia Roberts. Willful blindness persists in many areas. In banks and financial institutions, products were mis-sold. In churches, decades of child abuse were hidden, and in the entertainment industry, the #MeToo movement revealed longstanding issues.

It exists in organisations both small and large, where people turn a blind eye to an ethical issue and choose to keep silent. It happens in communities, and it happens in families.

Factors like fear of repercussions, the belief that one opinion won’t matter, and the treatment of whistleblowers all contribute to silence. These influences discourage people from speaking out. But under law, pleading ignorance cannot be a defense under the terms of Willful Blindness.

Like Organisational Silence described above, what are you doing to detect unethical practices within your organisation? What happens if it’s endemic from the top down? What is the right thing to do?

Personal Silence

Have you ever sat at your desk daydreaming about a better life?

You perform your duties to the best of your ability, but yet inside you’re deeply unhappy.

You have issues going on in your life that bring you to the point of questioning your self-belief and confidence. You’re unsure about your future and as a result, you take longer to make decisions. And perhaps you’ve had many nights of the soul. But you can’t tell anybody about how you’re feeling inside. What will they think? How will it affect your career? What will you do?

We say we want open conversations about mental health. But in reality, as an organisation do we?

The impact for the individual is just as high as they are for the company. For the individual, they may be wondering how it’s going to affect their career path if they say anything. The organisation on the other hand is worried about the consequences of knowing that an individual is under a lot of stress, or even depressed.

What will the company do? What will it cost them? How will they handle it? They can’t be seen to want the individual out of the company. What if they go off on long-term sick leave, then what?

Through my mentoring with organizations, I’ve had countless conversations with executives feeling depressed. Many have reached a point of suicidal ideation. It’s a troubling reality I’ve encountered far too often.

They feel comfortable telling me, knowing their words are safe with me. We help eliminate their dark feelings, bringing them huge relief.

As an individual, who are you turning to, to get help with your dark feelings, and your self-questioning about your confidence and your self-worth?

As an organisation, what are you doing to allow your employees a forum to discuss their issues, without them feeling there is a risk? It’s not an option to turn a blind eye.

There’s no doubt in my mind that when it comes to discussions about depression and suicide, we’re going to see a lot more people trying to battle it, deep within their silence. It’s becoming an epidemic, and the conventional way of dealing with depression is not going to make the grade.

So you see, whether it be organisational silence, willful blindness, or personal silence, the fact of the matter is, sometimes silence is not always golden.

But it is a very serious issue for your organisation, your employees, your profitability, productivity, your customers, and your community.

But the real question is, what are you going to do about it for your business?

If the above has raised any concerns for your organisation, feel free to get in touch so we can discuss what we can do to address these important issues for your business.

Extra Resources:

To find out more about Willful Blindness, take a look at this Ted Talk.