Bringing Honesty Back to Work

Here’s a question for business owners. “Would the company be better or worse if your employees never shared any bad news with you?” Those that subscribe to the ostrich school of business leadership likely would prefer to operate their company in the comfort of darkness and unknowing, but everyone else would greatly benefit hearing about bad news, direct and in-person, early on, before things get bad or out of hand. My question to you is, “does your leadership style encourage employees coming to you with bad news or prevent it from happening?”

I remember a few years back reading about Alan Mulally’s first business summit at Ford Motor Company after taking over as CEO. He asked the 30+ leaders at Ford to self-grade the operating performance of their respective units. The grading system was simple… (1) Green meant they were doing great with no problems, (2) yellow meant things were cautionary and (3) red meant there were serious problems. As the story goes, every single business unit leader held up a green sign. The problem was; Ford Motor Company was losing billions of dollars at the time and on the verge of bankruptcy. Clearly, there was a lack of honesty problem going on which undoubtedly was part of the company culture. This was a problem that needed to get fixed; immediately!

Recently, when asked why the turnaround at Ford Motor Company was successfully, Mulally spoke about rebuilding the company culture; bringing honesty front and center. My question to you is… “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the comfort level of employees being 100% honest with you and each other?” If there are problems with customer or vendor relationships, dysfunction inside the company, or any other imaginable problem, do you want to know about it immediately or later on, after small problems grow to be bigger ones?

Leaders that inspire honesty typically exhibit the following traits: (1) forgiving, (2) focuses on team’s success, (3) inspires followership, (4) proactively listens, (5) authentic, and (6) transparent. How many traits do you embody?

Too often, business owners can find themselves in a bubble where no one wants to give them any bad news. My advice is to not let this happen!