An open-door policy does not guarantee employees will bring bad news early.

How leaders respond to problems can determine whether employees speak up next time.

Delayed warnings can create bigger emergencies and more stress for leaders.

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.........

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