Centered Leaders Stay On The Record

Have you ever been asked to share a confidence, "off the record"?

Do you? Sometimes it happens so quickly that we don't even react in time to stop from going "off the record" to share a secret, a detail, or a comment that could at some point cause trouble.

We see it in the movies, on TV, and in our daily lives -- people who say that this is "off the record".

There's no such thing as off the record.

Everything is part of the record. Anything and everything can be dug up, subpoenaed, recalled, and shared. So when we say that something is off the record all we really mean is that we'd rather not have it generally known. There's little to stop it from hitting the record as soon as it becomes useful to someone.

Centered leaders operate with the respect, dignity, and compassion to realize that anything said that could harm someone is probably better left unsaid. Everything is on the record. All truth emerges. Everything bubbles to the top eventually.

The next time someone you are with mentions that something is off the record, ask them what that means. It probably doesn't mean what they think it does.

We are always communicating for results. What results do you want?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

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High Performance Leadership

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