Beg for the Bad News

“Begging for the bad news” means creating a climate in which everyone on your team understand that the boss wants to hear the bad as well as the good, that the boss expects you to speak up when something’s wrong and is not getting addressed in a timely manner.  

The leader must create a climate in which it is understood reflexively that bad news, while never pleasant, must be shared.  And the sooner the bad news is aired, the better.

It is amazing how slowly bad news can travel up the levels of an organization – unless the corporate culture encourages, and demands, that bad news be reported quickly.