When employees withhold bad news from their leaders, the instinct is to blame the messenger. But executive coach and former Paramount Pictures senior executive Joel Berman argues that the real failure often lies with the leader who failed to create the conditions for open communication.
Berman, who spent years in senior executive roles including President of Worldwide Television Distribution at Paramount, now works with leaders navigating executive responsibility and organizational leadership. His perspective is informed not only by coaching theory but by firsthand experience of the pressures, mistakes and responsibilities that accompany leadership.
The dynamic is familiar in many organizations: an employee encounters a problem and thinks, "This is my responsibility. I'm supposed to fix it." That instinct isn't wrong. Berman expects people responsible for an area of the business to think through issues and come prepared with a plan. The problem arises when "I'll handle it" becomes "I'll wait to tell anyone until I've handled it." Sometimes it doesn't get handled, and by the time the leader finds out, the choices available may be very different.
Consider revenue. If a business is likely to miss expectations and senior leadership learns early enough, expenses can be adjusted, resources moved, or the board prepared. None of that guarantees the problem gets fixed, but knowing earlier provides an opportunity to act. Finding out after the fact does not. "If you know in advance, you can ask: What can we do? What's the issue? Why is this not happening?" Berman said. "But if you find out after the fact, there's nothing you can do."
This is where Berman's view becomes uncomfortable for the person at the top. Yes, the employee who withheld information may have made a mistake. But that doesn't let the executive off the hook. "It's your fault because you didn't know about it," Berman said. "Yes, it's their fault too, but it's on you."
Berman doesn't claim to have executed this perfectly. "I think I've made every mistake there is to make," he said. That experience informs the way he coaches executives today. He acknowledges that during his own years as an executive, he wasn't always as consistent as he would have liked when people brought him problems. "I'd like to think I was the kind of leader that people could bring problems to, but I don't think I always reacted in a consistent manner," he said.
That admission matters because employees pay attention to what happens when someone delivers bad news. A leader may believe the door is always open, but pressure builds and difficult days happen. A reaction in a stressful moment can send a message the executive never intended. If someone gets reproached for delivering bad news, others quickly learn that bringing problems upward carries a price. That's how an executive can have an open door and still end up surrounded by people reluctant to walk through it.
Berman believes leaders need regular communication with direct reports, whether through meaningful dialogue in staff meetings, weekly or biweekly one-on-ones, or another rhythm that fits the organization. "You want to create a structure and a culture that encourages open communication," he said. That communication shouldn't revolve exclusively around problems; leaders should also want their people bringing them good news. When employees are excited about something that is working, sharing those successes should feel as natural as raising a concern.
The objective is not to create an organization where every development gets pushed upward. It is to create one where the people closest to the work understand what leadership needs to know and feel comfortable communicating it before circumstances make the conversation unavoidable. By the time someone reaches the upper levels of an organization, Berman believes knowing what is happening is itself part of the job. For more information about Joel Berman and his executive coaching, visit JoelPBerman.com.
