Bad News Travels Fast, Except to the Boss

We’ve all heard the phrase “bad news travels fast.” True. Except, sometimes, to the boss.

By the time a problem reaches the person in charge, it may have been growing for weeks. Employees know. A partner is frustrated. The deadline is nearly here. Now the leader has an emergency that should have reached them long before.

In one of my research interviews, a nonprofit executive described discovering that her team was significantly behind in recruiting families for a program. They had been struggling for about three months. An important outside partner had already questioned the poor results in a meeting. She found out afterward.

Once she knew, she and the team quickly implemented ways to improve recruitment, but what frustrated her most wasn’t missing the target. It was learning about the problem too late to help.

“Was it a sense that they didn't want to bother me with that kind of detail?” she wondered out loud to me. It's a good question. But I think there's another, more uncomfortable one that she, and all of us who lead, should be asking:

“What have I done, or failed to do, that makes people hesitant to bring bad news to me?”

Why Bad News Gets Stuck

Leaders love to say, “My door is always open.” And sometimes it really is. But an open door doesn't tell an employee what will happen when they walk through it with information the boss doesn't want to hear.

Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety helps explain why. It's the shared belief that people can take interpersonal risks, including admitting mistakes and raising concerns, without being humiliated or punished (Edmondson, 1999).

Sure, employees don't always stay quiet out of fear. Some think they can fix the problem themselves. Some aren't sure it's serious enough. Others don't want to add to the boss's already full plate. But sometimes they've learned that the boss reacts in a way that turns bad news into worse news.

I have personally dealt with this. I once had a boss who took the “scorched earth” approach. Give him bad news, and he'd come in, blow up the situation, then leave us to put out the fires and reset. Not ideal.

Even being a great boss might matter less than you think. Detert and Burris studied more than 3,000 employees and found that managerial openness was more consistently related to speaking up than transformational leadership. Psychological safety helped explain the relationship (Detert & Burris, 2007). This suggests that being inspiring doesn't necessarily mean people feel safe bringing problems to you.

The Cost of Being the Last to Know

The real problem for the leader is that silence feeds frustration. The longer the news is withheld, the bigger the problem can become, and the more frustrated the leader gets when it finally comes out. And if that frustration gets directed at the person who delivered the news? Well, they've just learned that next time, maybe they should wait even longer. More frustration. More silence. You get the idea.

Early on, there may be time to adjust a plan, offer help, or call a partner before trust is damaged. A month later, the same problem may force urgent decisions, damage relationships, and mean long evenings cleaning it up. The leader has fewer choices, and the ones left usually cost more relationally, financially, and often personally.

Ganster and Rosen's review of work stress and health describes how repeated workplace stressors can affect well-being through the cumulative burden of stress (Ganster & Rosen, 2013). One delayed report won't necessarily damage someone's health. But a steady stream of preventable crises adds strain to a job that already carries plenty.

Make It Easy to Tell You Early

The executive I interviewed already had a practical tool: a set of ground rules that amounted to “Tell me when…” After the incident, she revisited those rules with her team. She didn't need every detail of every program. She needed to know when something important was starting to slip: Tell me when the numbers are heading the wrong way. Tell me when a partner is losing confidence. Tell me when you've tried something twice, and it isn't working. Don't wait until you have a polished explanation or a finished solution.

But rules won't help if a leader's reaction teaches people to stay quiet. When someone brings a problem, notice your first response. Do you thank them for telling you, or immediately demand to know who's responsible? You can hold people accountable while still making it safe to raise a concern.

At your next team meeting, instead of “Is everything okay?” try “What are you noticing that we haven't talked about yet?” You may not love the answer. That's kind of the point.

To lead sustainably, make bad news safe to deliver while it's still small. The sooner you know, the more you can do, and the less you may have to carry later.

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