dangletech

The schedule has slipped. The budget is blown. The design is wrong.
 
If you are a leader, sooner or later you are going to be dealt bad news. And, if there is one thing that baffles me about the technology sector, it is how we ended up with such a disproportionate number of hot head leaders who cannot handle it! Personally I have witnessed sputtering to full blown eruption - it manifests itself in different ways but the result are the same.
 
So, to all you hot heads out there - here is my advice:
 
    Chill out! - Make your team an environment where people will feel safe to share not only their successes but also their problems.
    Manage your “user interface”. - Even if you are boiling on the inside, keep a calm exterior. As a leader, people are watching you!
    Focus on the data. - Don’t waste time on emotion, focus on the collecting the facts of the situation and move into problem solving mode as quickly as possible.
 
Here is my "rule of bad news ":
 
"If you handle bad news poorly as a HABIT, your staff will get in the HABIT of not telling you things you need to know."
 
If you do not get the information you need early enough, it becomes almost impossible to stop small problems from growing into big ones.  Given information and time, you have more control and more opportunity to turn things around.
When faced with a problem, what leader wouldn’t want that?