After graduating from university, my first professional gig was as a group and pension representative for a large national insurance carrier.  My Manager (we’ll call him Tom) was a kind, honest and hard working man who was a ‘lifer’ with the carrier.  Tom had one flaw in his management style and it was not until I started a new job as a group representative at another carrier that Tom’s flaw finally revealed itself to me.

Tom never wanted to hear bad news.  He would actually physically recoil when I told him negative information.  Just like Pavlov’s dog, I started to adjust my communication style and only reported positive news.  Over time, Tom’s perception of his office’s performance was skewed, employees lost confidence in their leader and morale suffered. 

My second Manager (we’ll call him Bruce) never wanted to hear good news.  Bruce would tell me that he could do nothing about the good news.  I remember he told me one never learns anything from success, but only from failure.  He would often quote Malcolm Forbes “Failure is success if we learn from it”.

Bruce’s office was built on trust, teamwork and a dedication toward excellence.  Our office performance was usually ranked in the top three of all offices and it was a joy to come to work.  In all my subsequent companies I have tried very hard to force my colleagues and employees to tell me only bad news.  This approach has always created such a powerful and positive corporate culture.  Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are Bruce or Tom.