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February 22, 2007
Why not tell the truth?
Imagine this scenario:
The CEO is unhappy. The results from the latest employee attitude survey are not good—in fact, significantly lower than the last time the survey was conducted. The numbers clearly indicate that employees are dissatisfied with many aspects of working for the company.
So HR and communication people race around trying to “fashion a response” and “shape messages” for the CEO to deliver to employees. These draft messages have a defensive tone and are filled with empty phrases like “human capital” and “prioritizing initiatives” and “we value our employees.”
My colleague and I who work for this client keep trying to quietly stop the madness. “The best practice is to give employees the straight story,” we say. Or: “Employees know how they answered the questions. And they probably have a pretty good idea how their co-workers answered the questions. So if you try to ‘spin’ the results, employees will know. And you’ll lose credibility.”
But our advice falls on deaf ears. Meeting after meeting is held, where participants talk about how to “manage the issue.” Message after message is drafted, and each is more dense and full of corporate speak than the last one. And, worst of all, a promotional agency is hired to create an “upbeat campaign” (slogans, posters) to improve employee morale.
If this were an external issue, it would be handled quite differently. For example, last week the airline JetBlue screwed up. Thousands of passengers were stuck on airplanes, delayed or had flights cancelled. After a few days’ hesitation, the CEO realized he needed to take action. So he issued a statement (even buying ad space to do so) saying, “We are sorry and embarrassed” about what happened, and making a commitment to change.
Why is this kind of response so difficult when it comes to an internal issue, like those bad survey results? My theory is that leaders are afraid that if they tell the truth, the company’s weaknesses will be exposed. But everyone in the organization already knows the way things really are. As a result, if you don’t tell the straight story, employees feel like the company is treating them like children. Or, worse, like they’re being lied to.
When something bad happens, the right thing to do is to take a deep breath and tell the truth. Not varnished, not spun, not packaged, not pretty. The naked truth. The ugly truth. Just the truth.
Posted by Alison Davis at February 22, 2007 01:56 PM
Comments
Great blog. Many leaders seem to think of the small picture: keeping people happy for the short term rather than targeting long-term success. They think by covering their own asses and sugarcoating the messages, they'll make it easy for people and be liked. It has the opposite effect: people are wary of the CEO and don't trust the messages. Build a culture of success starts with honesty: about the market, what the business has to do to succeed, and what role people need to do. That breeds long-term growth and employees who will follow the CEO into the battle for global supremacy.
Posted by: Jack Buchwald at February 22, 2007 03:55 PM
Thanks for the great post!
You build a good case for speaking honestly, but it also appears time for people to approach the leadership with the story behind this post and to require respectful communication about the problem.
Could it work - if the delegation suggests solutions also?
Posted by: Ellen Weber at February 22, 2007 06:27 PM
Applause. Applause. Applause.
It is amazing how frequently leaders (and communicators) ignore the option to simply tell the truth. I understand the desire to convey “good news” and “motivate” employees. Who wants to be the bearer of bad news? However, telling the truth—even when the news is not so good—can create outstanding results. Think of it as an opportunity.
I’m not talking about “spinning” the news. I’m suggesting that you have the opportunity to acknowledge what (in many cases) your employees already know. For example, if your employee survey results are negative, share the results but tell employees what you are going to do to about it. Perhaps you don’t have the answer yet, but challenge employees to help find the solution.
And if your company is in hot water with an outside group or facing an incident that will generate negative press, you want to try to inform your employees before they hear about it externally. At least make the attempt to tell them as quickly as possible. And, again, if you can do something about it, tell employees what you’re planning.
I’ve been in situations when we knew that the news—layoffs; multi-million dollar settlement; product delay that sinks the stock price—would have a hard impact on employees. However, we reached out to employees as soon as we could, gave them the information, told them what we knew and planned to do. In each case, people certainly weren’t thrilled by the news, but they appreciated hearing from the company. And that kept the buzz and distraction to a minimum.
Posted by: Brian S. Keefer at April 2, 2007 05:53 PM