In working with clients, I can rarely stress enough the importance of giving employees at each level an inside look into company performance. Aside from giving your team a greater sense of ownership in their roles, this level of transparency also allows for much greater context in their decision-making.

But this idea is often met with resistance, either because it strikes owners as risky, or the how of it isn’t as straightforward as it initially sounds.

So this week, I’ll be breaking down exactly what employees at each level need to know to perform their best while keeping you protected as an owner.

But before I get started, I want you to keep one thing in mind.

You should default to showing your employees more than you think.

If you treat your people fairly, 99.999% of the time, taking this approach will work out in your favor.

Let’s get into it.

Senior Managers

Your senior leadership team needs to see it all—your P&L, the Balance Sheet—the whole shebang.

Without it, they can’t be expected to meet their financial targets. And since they’re typically rewarded based on whether or not they hit these targets, they won’t be able to control their income—let alone firmwide performance—without full visibility.

Further, when senior leaders are kept in the dark, their subpar decision-making will ripple through the entire business. They need to know where to focus, what to delegate, and how to measure the success or failure of key initiatives. None of this is possible without a full view of the books.

Mid-Level Managers

Regardless of their respective area of the business, each mid-level manager first needs to know the Revenue and Gross Margin for the business as a whole and then both of those numbers for each area, not just their own.

The goal of this breakdown is not to start comparing apples and oranges across business units. Rather, mid-level managers need to fully understand how their teams fit into and support the broader direction of the company.

Without that understanding, their decisions are likely to have unintended consequences or to siphon off resources that could be better allocated elsewhere.

Individual Contributors

Typically, your team is much less informed than you think.

A good experiment to illustrate this point is to ask each of your employees what they think the Revenue of the business is. Their answers will probably shock you.

At the very least, individual contributors need to know Revenue, but I’d also recommend keeping KPIs relevant to their specific roles visible at all times.

This might take a bit of work to set up on the front end, but allowing them to watch their efforts move the needle in real time will motivate better, more targeted performance toward what actually matters for the business as a whole.

And if they don’t fully understand the numbers on day one, that’s okay. Their managers should be breaking it down until they do. The health of your business depends on it.

Putting It All Together

Here are your top takeaways from this week’s post.

1. You should default to sharing more financial information with your team than you think. As long as you treat them well, doing this will work out in your favor.

2. But what you should be sharing varies by employee level.

3. Senior managers need to know it all. Without that level of transparency, they won’t be able to fully direct the business or hit the targets you set.

4. Mid-level managers need to know overall Revenue and Gross Margin at a minimum. However, breaking these numbers down by area can provide much needed context to their decision-making.

5. Individual contributors need to know Revenue, but I’d also suggest keeping the KPIs that they can directly influence in their roles highly visible. Managers should be sure that everyone on their respective teams understands the numbers and feels comfortable asking questions until they do.

Hungry for More?

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‘Til Next Time,

Connor