This is Johanna Rothman's October 2025 Pragmatic Manager newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email.
I happened to see a recent review of Practical Ways to Manage Yourself that made me laugh. (I don't normally read book reviews because once I put the book out into the world, that book is on its own.) The reviewer, Z, literally could not believe I had these conversations with the powerful people in the organization. How could I be so frank and direct? How could I speak truth to those with so much power over me?
I addressed this in Insubordination vs Caring About the System and explained my discussions in each of the Modern Management Made Easy books. But from his comments, Z felt perplexed. Why can Z not imagine these conversations? Because Z has never worked in a culture that allows these conversations.
Culture is:
- What we can discuss
- How we treat each other, and (possibly most importantly)
- What we reward.
I am sure Z has never worked in a place where speaking truth to power was rewarded. That's a culture problem.
How I Speak Truth to Power
First, I don’t know any other way to be. But even more importantly, how could I not speak my truth to their power? Especially if I balance the self, other, and context with congruence. Here are my assumptions when I want to speak truth to power:
- Leaders care about the value of the products we release. (The more the product offers value to the customers, the more revenue the company can make.)
- Because the people do the work, it makes sense to care about the environment in which they work. Some leaders forget that, so I challenge them to care. (See the project risk pyramid for the environment in How Product Risks Differ from Project Risks.)
- Leaders want to maintain a professional relationship with the people they lead and serve. That's why congruence works.
When leaders do not care about being congruent? People do not last long at that organization. Not only because people choose to leave. But because the products fail—often in spectacular ways.
There are many reasons for product failure. Sure, it might be that people don't care. But that's a leadership problem. Sometimes people stop caring because they don't have sufficient time to do a great job. Or they're not collaborating with other people who can coach them. If leaders stop de-motivating people, they care. A lot.
Product failure starts a downward spiral of fewer customers and less revenue. The leaders feel more pressure, and if their actions are not congruent, the spiral continues.
That's when we all need to speak truth to power.
A leader's fear often creates incongruence and power-over others, not power with.
What Do Leaders Fear?
In power-over organizations, every leader is supposed to know “everything.” That's impossible.
Worse, in these organizations, leaders are supposed to work as individuals. That creates the dynamic of more fear, specifically of losing their jobs, and therefore, their pay. (See How to See the Blind Spots That Maintain the Current System, Useful or Useless for more information.)
Some leaders might suffer from Imposter Syndrome and pray no one will discover their inadequacies.
If leaders cannot discuss their fears, if we treat leaders as if they are infallible, and we reward their supposed individual (updated to add individual) successes, why wouldn't leaders use power over? Why would they want feedback?
A culture of incongruence creates more and more fear. Instead, we can offer congruent feedback as a way to speak truth to power.
Feedback Allows Anyone to Speak Truth to Power
Leaders, titled or not, need to see the reality of what’s going on at all levels to adequately lead and serve. Speaking truth to power is a form of feedback to those leaders. That's why congruent feedback helps people see the effect of their actions. That's your truth to their power.
Recognize what the culture rewards as you offer feedback. Be as congruent as you can. Tell the leader the story of what happened, with everything you tried and the results. (See How to Write a Successful Experience Report Conference Proposal for how you might organize your story.)
Be ready to anonymize the individuals, especially if you think the culture does not value what you want to discuss. Even in this newsletter, I used “Z” to denote the reviewer, not their name. You can do the same thing.
Then, explain the value of how people work or do not work. Use the three parts of value: tangible, intangible, and peripheral, as well as the Costs of Delay, to describe the costs and benefits of the leader's current way of working. You might make other choices.
How to Speak Your Truth to Power
Congruence allows you to exercise your power. What is the context? What do you need to say, and how can you say it so the other person can hear you?
You, too, can speak truth to power. Sure, you might not be as blunt and direct as I am—but I hope you consider how much strength you have in your truth.
(This is a part of the series of leadership tips.)
Read More:
This newsletter touches on several of my books:
- The Modern Management Made Easy books, especially Practical Ways to Manage Yourself
- Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships That Focus on Mutual Benefit
- Effective Public Speaking: How to Use Content Marketing With Stories to Show Your Value
- Diving For Hidden Treasures: Uncovering the Cost of Delay in Your Project Portfolio
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Links of Interest
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Here are other links you might find useful:
- Managing Product Development Blog. (Yes, I offer an RSS feed so you can read everything in a newsreader.)
- Create an Adaptable Life Blog to see the weekly question of the week.
- My Books. You can also buy my self-published ebooks and audiobooks on my store.
- My Workshops
- Johanna’s Fiction
- Tip Jar
See you next month,
Johanna
© 2025 Johanna Rothman
Pragmatic Manager: Vol 22, #10, ISSN: 2164-1196