Yes, you did read that correctly!
When I worked as a Director of HR in the Education Sector, it won’t surprise you to learn that much of my job role was confidential.
I remember visiting a Headteacher, within our Trust, and when I arrived I found him in his office quietly fuming. Turns out that someone on his senior team had let the cat out the bag about a plan to restructure that ultimately would result in redundancies.
When you are privy to sensitive information, it’s important to be able to keep it confidential. Leaking it to the wider school community, as had happened here, had a significantly negative impact.
I remember him saying to me “Loose lips sink ships”. What a powerful saying and so punchy too!
Factoid; The term ‘Loose lips sink ships’ was a wartime expression meaning ‘unguarded talk may give useful information to the enemy’
It made me ponder about why some people can keep confidences while others find it nigh on impossible.
One personality type in particular falls into this latter group; The Influencer.
The Influencer Style (according to the DiSC model) likes to show that they are “in the know” when it comes to restricted information or “sexy secrets”. They are likely to tell one or two trusted friends or colleagues but will swear them to secrecy so that they can go and tell yet more people, “confidentially”!
Is this a trait you recognise in yourself or others? If you’re interested in personality styles and how we interact with each other, why not join my private (women only) Facebook group to find out more about how to unlock the people puzzle
All the best
Julie
PS. To save you searching, here’s the link to my group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thethriveloungewithjuliebrown
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