“Bring me only bad news. Good news weakens me.” [1]

Those thought provoking words hung prominently on the wall of Sargent Shriver’s office as he launched the Peace Corps in 1961. Organizational bureaucracy often pressures subordinates to tell their boss what the boss wants to hear. With bad news filtered out on its way up the organization chart, leaders often hear a preponderance of good news. Shriver believed hiding “bad news” would cripple his rapidly growing organization.

Success is not logical. It’s not logical for leaders to ask for bad news, yet doing so very often leads to the growth of good news.

Here are four examples of why Sargent Shriver was correct:

• The Bad News Burdens…Bad news is a burden to those who know it exists. It’s very difficult to win a competitive race carrying a burden. Wise leaders encourage employees, customers and suppliers to unload their bad news burdens. Leaders are wise to practice the sixth principle of Activity Based Management (ABM) is“Don’t kill the messenger of bad news. Celebrate finding errors and root causes of activities. Do NOT celebrate the repetition or errors or variances to plan.” [2] Leaders incapable of handling bad news become separated from the organizations they strive to lead. Wise leaders with a bad news, open-door policy grow closer to those that follow.
• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…If leaders don’t ask tough questions, then subordinates don’t tell important information. Asking, “How’s it going?” is polite but not pointed. For example, CEO’s should ask the CFO, “What 20% of our customers represent 80% of our profit?” If the CFO does not know the answer, Activity-Based Gross Margin Profiling will provide the answer. (For info on Gross Margin Profiling go to icms.net/gross-margin-profiling-information.htm ) Until unprofitable customers or product lines are exposed and dealt with, profit improvement will be restrained.
• Mutiny on the Boundaries…To cover up bad news, people have turned to discarding moral absolutes carved in stone and moved the boundary line of what’s right & wrong to bring only good news to their leaders. One of the reasons for Enron’s demise resulted from leaders letting it be known that they didn’t want to hear bad news reports of lower earnings. “In dismissing objective standards upon which right and wrong were judged, our culture came to value all ideas as equally valid and good.” [3] Now is the time for leaders to be intolerant of bad behavior, not bad news.
• Are We Coming or Going?…A primary responsibility of a parent is to teach children how to leave. A primary responsibility of a leader is to teach followers how to stay. To accomplish both objectives requires the same thing… prepare them how to respond to bad news. When my daughter was sixteen, I led her to the garage one afternoon and told her, “Valerie, change the front tire on the car.” She replied, “But Dad, it’s not flat.” As I opened the trunk, I said, “I know, but some day it will be flat and I want you to know what to do when it happens.” Parents and leaders know for a fact that bad things are going to happen. Prepare people for it.

Sargent Shriver and wife Eunice Shriver are great examples of people who make good come out of bad. Instead of ignoring Rosemary Kennedy, Eunice’s mentally retarded sister, the Shrivers celebrated her life by founding the Special Olympics in 1968. At the inaugural games, there were just a few dozen people in the stands. In 2004, Special Olympic events have grown to include over 150 countries, positively impacting the lives of millions of athletes and volunteers. All because the Shrivers were inspired by what most people viewed as bad news.

Don’t be afraid of receiving or delivering bad news. It may be the most important thing you do this entire year.

[1] Sarge: The Life & Times of Sargent Shrive, Scott Stossel, Smithsonian Books, 2004

[2] The Principles, Barry Cameron & Tom Pryor, Heart Spring Press, 2003

[3] The Absolutes, James Robison, Tyndale House Publishing, 2002