From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership

COMMUNICATE IN GOOD TIMES (AND THREE TIMES AS OFTEN IN BAD TIMES)

Typically, when things are going well, leaders send out voice mails and e-mails, and communicate frequently. Everybody in the organization knows what is going on. Then a problem arises. Things aren't going so well. Suddenly, communication stops. People wonder what happened, because not a word is coming from the leaders. The atmosphere in the cubicles can get mighty cynical in times like these.

As we'll discuss in more depth in Chapter Eleven on crisis management, whenever an issue arises, people need to be told what the leaders know, what they do not know, and how soon the leaders will get back to them on the unknowns. Sometimes leaders say that although they would like to communicate ...