Page 186 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Can Take Bad News • 167

from management if promotions slow down, and from outside if search
consultants don’t call.
If your company is losing sales to its competitor, but no one knows
why, there is very little chance that the situation will change unless you
find out what your customers are thinking. Likewise, if you don’t know
where you stand with your “customer” (e.g., management), you don’t
know where to go from here.
One hospital CEO initiated a program in which representatives vis-
ited patients in their homes after they were released to get the patients’
experiences. While in the hospital, people felt that they couldn’t com-
plain. An early finding of this program was the need for bilingual staff
because some patients couldn’t understand their treatments or their
follow-up instructions.
An electronics company CEO would carry a list of customers when
he traveled. In between meetings, he’d phone who he could to check on
their satisfaction. If there was a repair problem, he’d literally send his
plane’s pilot—who was cross-trained in repair—to the person’s location
immediately.
Only by finding out about problems can you correct them.
If you give people encouragement to identify your weaknesses, ask
for their recommendations too, just as you wouldn’t bring up a problem
unless you also brought up a solution. Don’t accept criticism without clar-
ification on the giver’s part. You deserve to know what people are using
to back up their comments. If they give you the first, they must give you
the second too—this goes for both formal and informal feedback.

Criticism and conflict avoidance are my favorite pastimes.

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Truth is, in life, you will get criticism if you aren’t working hard—or
if you are!
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At some level, you don’t get criticism per se; instead, you pretty much
either get vague suggestions or killed. There’s not much middle ground.

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