[May 08, 2015] “Just keep me informed so that I’m not surprised,” so said my commander during the early days in the Iraq War when our troops were in a running gun battle with insurgents. When it comes to bad news, I have found that keeping your boss informed of potential and actual bad news is important because it allows them to make corrections or improve the situation in other ways.
Never surprise you boss is the cardinal rule of delivering bad news to your boss/manager/commander. While much has been written about how a good subordinate can deliver unpleasant information to their boss, little is said about the criticality of delivering that information quickly; the sooner the better even if the information is not perfect. We find that as time goes by, bad news does not improve. Typically, the situation gets worse so giving your boss a heads-up will be appreciated.
There is truth to the sentiment that bad news does not get better with age. As a new second lieutenant I forgot to tell my company commander that we were low of fuel for our armored vehicles. We were all tired from what seemed like no sleep and constant movement during war games on a U.S. Army base.
Our higher headquarters wanted to simulate combat as closely as possible and we got worn out pretty quickly. After a bawling out by the commander, he was able to get a refuel mission set up and we got our fuel just in time. If I’d told him of the problem sooner, there would have been less stress and I would have remembered … lesson learned. If this had been real combat people might have died.
A corollary to this cardinal rule is that one should never hide or try to bias the facts of the situation. Never attempt to make the bad news look better (or worse) regardless of the reasoning. This may cause an underestimation of the extent of the bad news or a misdiagnosis of the problem. If this were to occur, as I have personally seen many times, everyone will be worse off than if all the information had been presented at the earliest possible time.1
Successful leaders insist on being told quickly about bad news. They ensure those working for them understand this concept and remind them about it, as my commander did. Leaders at all levels have a lot to worry about but should still be swiftly informed about bad news.
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