The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

By: Don Eagon

One of my all-time favorite actors is Clint Eastwood. In addition to being an outstanding actor, he is an accomplished writer, producer and director. I’m not sure it is all of these categories why I like him, or if it is all the characters he plays. Notice he plays characters that are tough but gentle; honest and forthright; tell-it-like-it-is with no sugar coating. You don’t have to love the characters, but you respect them for what they stand for.

My favorite of his spaghetti westerns is “The Good, the Bad. and the Ugly”. If you haven’t seen it, rent it. Why, out of all his movies do I like that one? Because every time I have watched that movie (at least a dozen times or more) it reminds me of a lot of companies and how they communicate with their employees.

Let me try to explain. I have been on the receiving end, and the giving front, of sugar coated corporate news and “no” news.

When the news was super good, the clowns, balloons and fireworks came out. When the news was bad or ugly you couldn’t find the top leaders anywhere. This “no communication strategy” usually led to a different kind of fireworks that was detrimental to company morale and productivity. And strange as it may seem, the best support team corporate leaders could ever have are their employees- at ALL levels, regardless of responsibility! Unfortunately, the direction that most corporate leaders take is to treat their employees like second and third class citizens incapable of handling bad news.

Here’s the point. Whether the news is “good, bad or ugly” talk about it with employees and get their input and comments. Shocking, but as a leader you may learn something. Most importantly, be consistent and upfront. Think of yourself as one of the Clint Eastwood characters – be honest, forthright and tell it like it is. Employees don’t have to love you, but they do need to respect you as a leader.

Make sure your managers, supervisors and rainmakers have the means to talk about:

The Good: tell them the company just got a big order, compliment them for their good work and then congratulate them.

The Bad: communicate that the company just lost a big order, tell them why, and solicit their ideas on how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The Ugly: let them know that business has started to head south, the reasons why, what needs to be done, solicit their ideas in addition to yours, and let them know you will be “closing the loop” in a specific number of days.

Simple? No! Good business? Yes! Empowering your employees and asking for their input will lead to greater trust and accountability, more responsibility, and an increased feeling of company ownership.

Meeker -Young has the communication training programs and experienced facilitators to help you through the most difficult communication problems. By the way, “The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.” is but one of our highly specialized training courses and communication survey capabilities. Give us a call to see how Meeker -Young can customize a training curriculum just to meet your special needs.