Many years ago, I was at a meeting in San Francisco with a global investment fund manager. The discussion veered to my views on the Indian political climate and opportunities. I gave a candid view of what I thought, without couching my words in niceties. At the end of the meeting, as I was leaving, the fund manager said to me, “Thanks for your inputs. You have spoken truth to power. We don’t find too many people doing that nowadays.” This was the first time I had heard the phrase “truth to power.” I was curious what it meant and about its origins. My host then explained to me that it was a Quaker leader and meant the act of voicing one’s beliefs to those in positions of power.
Here is a Dictionary.com explainer: “The specific phrase speak truth to power is credited to Bayard Rustin in 1942. Rustin was a Black Quaker and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, advocating nonviolent methods in his fight for social justice. In a letter written that year, Rustin stated that “the primary social function of a religious society is to ‘speak the truth to power.’ The truth is that war is wrong.” The phrase was picked up in a 1955 text about pacifist strategies to achieve justice, Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, published by a Quaker organization in conjunction with Rustin. The work became a guide for many people organizing against violence during the Cold War.”
Since that day, the phrase “speaking truth to power” has stayed with me. It is what I have always done; I just didn’t have a phrase to describe it. I have always believed in giving candid feedback when asked. I also ask for frank inputs on what I could have done better. This is the only way we can all improve. Speaking the unvarnished truth is something that is happening a lot less in a world where sensitivities on both the right and left of the political spectrum are high. Even in the workplace, we are extra careful not to ruffle feathers. I don’t subscribe to this view. I believe we must speak our mind. In interviews that I do, I do not put any boundaries on the questions I can be asked and neither do I ask for the questions to be sent to me in advance. I speak my mind.
As leaders and even in families, we must learn to speak truth to power. If something is wrong, we must call it out. When I speak in internal meetings and reviews, I do not mince words because that is the culture I want within Netcore. At a review recently, I was quite brutal with a colleague who I thought was going down a wrong path. I wasn’t sure how he would take it, but at the end he appreciated the directness and said he will think deeply about the points I said.
My advice: never hesitate in speaking truth to power. It is always the right thing to do – for yourself and for those being spoken to.