Tell All You Know
In 1997, Columbia / HCA was investigated for fraud relating to Medicare and Medicaid and paid a settlement of $1.7 billion, which was, according to the Wikipedia entry on HCA, at that time the largest fraud settlement in US history.
Having worked at HCA in the early 2000s, I personally learned of the measures that had been put in place within the company since that time to prevent future violations or misdoings, partly mandated by the settlement and partly instigated by HCA itself: primarily, there was a universal Code of Conduct which all employees were required to review annually, and an Ethics and Compliance department with a tip hotline for anyone who observed any violation or potential violation of that Code of Conduct.
I bring this up because one of the statements I heard a few times during my years at HCA from some of the company’s top leaders had the ring of a lesson hard learned: they advocated telling all you know, as soon as you know it, to anyone who should know.
An article in HarvardBusiness.org about The Right Way to Manage Surprises reminded me of all this the other day. The first suggestion in the article was this:
“1. Don’t wait so long to tell (or to ask.) It was 1998. I had only reported to Ken Chenault, our CEO and Chairman, for about three or four months at that point. I was managing our US corporate travel and commercial card businesses. And I had a little problem. It was called the Asian Financial Crisis. Remember that? I can still feel the puddle of sweat on the middle of my back as I told Ken in September I was going to miss my numbers for the year. But I’ll also never forget his response. He said, ‘Ed, you’ve done all the right things to deal with the issue but next time, don’t wait so long to tell me. We have more options if you tell me earlier.’ He handled the situation with grace and I learned a lot about leadership. Tell early. Ask often. Get surprises out in the open as soon as you can. That way you move beyond shock, can focus on action, and work to get closure. “
It often seems that there horrible consequences to coming forward with bad news, but leaders certainly need to know when something has gone wrong. The situation will likely only get worse with delay. And yet it takes a brave soul to march into the CEO’s office and ruin his or her day.
What suggestions do you have for being the bearer of bad news? What advice do you have for leaders receiving bad news? Tell us in the comments.
