Dear Colleague
Here's a tip from the best selling book, LEAD RIGHT, that is a reminder for us all:
Unless you happen to be a descendant of the grim reaper, you're probably not overjoyed with the prospect of hearing bad news. Who is? When we get this "news" we often resent the problem - and far too often, we resent the person who tells us about it. So, in addition to responding negatively to the news, we sometimes..."shoot the messenger". And when we do that, we accomplish three things:
- We vent (inappropriately) and temporarily feel better.
- We "punish" a team member for doing the right thing.
- We create and even bigger problem for ourselves.
What's the bigger problem we create? I goes like this...if someone gets zapped for telling us about problems, they'll stop telling us. If they don't tell us, we won't know. And, if we don’t know what's broken, we can't fix it. And if we don't fix what's broken, we're not doing our jobs as leaders. So, we then become the one who gets zapped!
IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS!
Don't punish people who bring you bad news...instead, thank them! They are really doing you and your organization a big favor. It may be a favor in disguise, but it's still a favor!
Just remember that leadership is practiced not so much in words as in ATTITUDES and ACTIONS.
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