If you’re reading this, you may already know a little about Franco’s culture and core values. But I’d like to take a moment to focus on courageous truth.
At first, this Franco-specific term may simply seem like a combination of two more common values: courage and truth. But when you dive deeper, it becomes clear that courageous truth is a concept that guides every individual in our agency.
What is Courageous Truth?
Displaying courageous truth means daring to remain authentic and true to values when expressing beliefs and/or making decisions, despite the consequences.
Courageous truth is deliberate. It is integrity, self-awareness, responsibility and boldness.
Taking a Cue From the Wizard of Oz
“There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.” – L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Taking a page from the Great and Powerful Oz, we know there will be situations when we don’t want to speak up or act. But it’s during those times when we show our greatness and true courage.
Why Courageous Truth?
In our roles, we are advisors, partners and advocates. We owe it to ourselves to speak our courageous truth, especially when representing our clients.
Speaking Your Truth
While we all are faced with moments and decisions that define us and our integrity, some people may feel obligated to “go with the flow” or simply follow instructions. Committing to courageous truth empowers us to speak up and be ethical, not only for ourselves, but for our clients as well.
Courageous Truth in the Workplace
No matter if we’re in the office or working from home during a global pandemic, we will continue to give our best counsel to clients. By speaking our courageous truth, we are more accountable, ethical and trustworthy.
Accountability
Every decision we make and every action we take has an effect. Whether it’s on us, our loved ones or our clients – something comes from these choices. We should be held accountable. Utilizing courageous truth enables you to step up, take responsibility for yourself and lead with integrity.
Ethics
At work, it’s important to honor your personal values and practice honesty and transparency with those you work with. Consider your moral compass and the principles that guide you. Courageous truth is an extension of them. It means being mindful of the greater good in everything you do.
Trust
People won’t work with you if they don’t trust you. Trust is the key to building and maintaining strong relationships. Having difficult conversations and making tough decisions may not be comfortable, but these are critical for growth. After all, our clients trust our counsel and that responsibility should never be taken lightly.
Franco’s Courageous Truth
We asked a few Franco team members to share what courageous truth means to them.
- “To me, courageous truth means stepping up to uncomfortable situations and making your voice heard when people in the room don’t want to hear it.” – Senior Designer Ashley Dupuy-Mancuso
- “Courageous truth is delivering excellent work for our clients and having the courage to make the tough recommendations when needed. That could mean recommending a larger strategic change like shifting the direction of communications to be better aligned with trends and feedback from media. Or, it could be a smaller change to individual tactics to create the most effective end product. Our clients look to us as the experts in integrated communications, so providing that input, even when it may not be a popular opinion, is a valuable part of the strategic counsel Franco provides.” – Account Supervisor Dan Horn
- “My interpretation of courageous truth is having the courage to say something – whether it’s to a client, coworker or loved one – that may make us feel uncomfortable but needs to be said to make things better. While it can be difficult to say what other people won’t, as PR professionals it’s our job to be courageous and to speak the truth.” – Account Supervisor Andrea Kenski
- “To me, courageous truth means I’m committed to giving my clients the best counsel possible – even when it requires uncomfortable conversations or difficult decisions. It’s my commitment to treating my client’s goals and objectives as they were my own, and it’s my promise to never shy away from taking a hard look at our progress and process to improve.” – Senior Digital Account Executive Lexi Trimpe
Franconians pride themselves on living their courageous truth not only at work, but also in their personal lives too.
