Tiffany Rafii, UpSpring PR |What’s a courageous but rarely understood step most CEOs can take that will get them a massive ROI?

Be honest with their teams. 

Tiffany, CEO of 30-person PR firm Upspring PR, doesn’t just know she should be honest with her team when times are tough; she acts on what she knows. Her specialized PR firm services the architecture and interior design industries and since both rely on building and creating in the physical world, her clients were hit hard by the COVID pandemic and so there was a very real possibility Upspring would be hit hard, as well.

She set expectations with her team, helping everyone to know where they and the business stood. It diminished their stress at a very stressful time and brought everyone closer together. It might have been easier to hide the truth from her people but Tiffany was well-prepared for honest leadership because she has never forgotten where her business was born: A dorm room at GWU. 

When you’ve never had a job before you start a business, there’s so much you don’t know. When you’re honest with yourself and others about what you don’t know, it’s so much easier to ask for - and get - the help you need. 

“To us, culture is really about brutal transparency and being honest about what we know and don’t know and asking for help when we need it.”