Hi Alstair, Yep, leading is not easy - especially when you're making a concerted effort to model a transparent leadership style that you want your company's culture to embrace.  My nature is to open and sharing so this has been less of an issue for me to practice transparent leadership.
One thing I know for sure, however, is that information is posted to the Internet in record speed - showing up on social media sites we weren't aware of a day ago.  Because of this and email, IM, Skype, etc. it's nearly impossible to keep a secret today, so it's better than our people hear the truth from us directly as opposed to supposition posted around the Internet.  Mama used to say, “tell the truth up front…it leads to less spanking later.”  Jonena