Bad News Travels First

When dealing with leaders people want to be bearers of good news. They want to impress their bosses and as a result will often bury or downplay bad news.

This is compounded by workplaces that avoid conflict or are toxically positive where only nice commentary is culturally acceptable.

In these environments people will silence criticism or worse, honest assessment of the work.

Being able to discuss what’s not working is far more valuable than hearing how great everything is. Most of a leader’s job is to help solve problems the team couldn’t solve on their own. Teams that hide this from leaders out of fear or a false confidence that they will figure it out are disastrous.

Create a culture where bad news travels first.