Social entrepreneurs are straightforward

This is one of the 12 Great Qualities of a Social Entrepreneur from my book Creating Social Enterprise

Entrepreneurs typically spend a lot of their time communicating with other people. Early on I learned the art of communicating in a straightforward manner.

Being straightforward is about effectively communicating information that both you and the other person should find useful, important or worth conveying. It is polite rather than abrupt but does not avoid the point of the communication. Straightforward is not the same as blunt. It is certainly not rude, because that is likely to provoke unhelpful emotional responses. A polite yet straightforward communication is easy for other people to hear or read.

Difficult conversations are best had in a straightforward manner, such as tackling poor performance by discussing what success would look like or sharing bad news by being honest about the situation and how to turn it around.

When any of my enterprises has gone through inevitable difficult times, I have always been honest and straightforward with the staff. Even when the message has been uncomfortable, I’ve received feedback that people appreciated the manner of the communication.

You can download the 12 Great Qualities of a Social Entrepreneur here