Time to read: 3 minutes
Article at a glance:
- “Share what you’re seeing” means contributing clarity, not complaining or proving a point, but helping the team see more clearly.
- Intent matters. Speak from a place of helpfulness, not ego or frustration.
- Balance candor with consideration. Honesty is powerful when paired with care for how it lands.
- Different perspectives fuel better decisions. Conflict can be useful when it’s rooted in trust and contribution.
At Redmond, you’ll frequently hear the phrase “share what you’re seeing.” So, what does this mean? How do you do this in a helpful way?
Speaking up helpfully and appropriately means sharing what you’re seeing in a way that helps us understand a situation better. It doesn’t mean whining, being argumentative for the sake of argument, trying to get buy in, or complaining.
So what can you do to share what you’re seeing in a way that’s helpful?
Speak Up From a Place of Helpfulness.
If you’re genuinely trying to be helpful and improve the process, you can be confident that you’re speaking appropriately and not for more ego-driven reasons.
But if you’re just venting, pointing fingers, selling your ideas, or trying to prove you’re right, that won’t be as helpful because the desire to be helpful isn’t there.
So, notice your motivations when you share. Are you sharing from a place of ego, or genuinely trying to help the team?
How you share matters
We can share what we’re seeing with the best of intentions and still come off in a way we didn’t mean to.
It helps to work on how you share, and also get to know the people you work with so you can better understand how your sharing might land with them.
Candor and Consideration
Most of us tend to err on the side of either candor (being very honest) or consideration (concern for other people’s feelings). If you know you’re low in one, work on building that one up, not lowering the area where you’re already strong. We want you to have a lot of BOTH, not too much of one or the other.
Get to know the people you work with
We can’t control other people or read their minds, so we can never have a perfect understanding of our impact.
But we can learn more about how we come off to people.
We love personality profiles around here for many reasons, and one of those is because they help us better understand how others might react to us. Some personalities like a direct approach while others need a softer one, etc.
Another great shortcut here is to just ask how you make people feel. Ask the people you work with and your family. (We find that family is usually happy to help with this.)
Also, consider short term vs long term impact. In the short term, speaking up helpfully can lead to conflict, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even if sharing shakes things up in the short term, it can be really helpful in the long run.
Conflict Is A-Okay
What if someone disagrees with you, or is seeing something very different?
That can actually be a good thing.
We’re not trying to avoid conflict around here. We want different perspectives, even and especially if they clash. If we’re missing something, we want to know.
As long as you’re coming from a place of being helpful, practicing Ubuntu, and wanting to improve things (not blame or prove yourself), please share if you have a different perspective.
Different perspectives are like shining light on an object from different directions to illuminate it from all sides. It helps us see more clearly and understand more deeply!
What if you don’t know how to talk about what you’re seeing?
Think about these questions.
- What’s working really well?
- When do you feel like you’re in flow?
- What’s frustrating you? (You can express this without complaining. Just speak with the intention to be helpful.)
- You have a good day until _____ happens. (Fill in the blank.)
- What’s clunky?
Also, one of our favorite questions is simply “Why?” Ask why at least five times. Ask it until you feel like an incessantly curious four-year-old to get to the root of something.
Your Voice Helps Us See More Clearly
In the end, sharing what you’re seeing is an act of contribution.
When you speak up with both candor and consideration, from a place of wanting to help, not prove, you’re helping shape a culture where collaboration thrives.
So don’t hold back. Your perspective helps provide the light we need to see more clearly.
