“Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with
age.”—Former Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell
(with Joseph E. Persico), My American Journey (2010)
This should be the management mantra of our time,
but sadly it isn’t. Many CEOs don’t want to hear dissent and are ready to exile
upper-level executives who question any aspect of their playbook. When a
problem develops, nobody wants to deliver the bad news—until the situation is
too late.
And so it has become in national politics, with the
nation’s President (yes, a former CEO) has steadily resisted the bearers of bad
news. In his mind, “I alone can fix it.” See where that’s gotten us…
(The image accompanying this post is the official
portrait of Gen. Powell as the Secretary of State, taken by the Department of
State in January 2001.)
