Question: What’s worse than having a huge problem?
Answer: Having a huge problem that you don’t know you have!
The joke makes a key point, a point that in military circles is often framed as the difference between the “unknown” and the “unknown unknowns” (the latter being those things you are unaware that you don’t know: knowing you have an enemy you’re fighting vs. not even knowing that you’re actually in a warfighting an enemy because you think he is your friend.)
From the eyes of your boss, or anyone responsible for any business or business unit (and perhaps this may apply to anyone responsible for anything in life), it’s always better to know about a problem, no matter how bad the news, than to be blindsided by it. Just think of my example above, would you rather be in a war where you know the enemy and can plan how to win, or to just be blissfully living your life not even knowing you’re at war?
As unhappy as you feel when you’re told about a problem, it’s so much better—from the boss’s or client’s eyes—to be told than not to be told, for a few reasons:
- If you know the problem, you can try to fix it
- Not knowing the problem is temporary, so it’s better to know sooner so you can start trying to fix it sooner rather than later
- The person who notices the fire first gets substantial credit for helping put it out, rather than the person who just pretended there was no fire.
There is only one downside to telling your boss or client the bad news: you have to look him or her in the eye and say it. And sometimes, it is your fault, which makes it even harder.
Okay, I tried to convince you to be the bearer of bad news using the carrot. But now I’ll use the stick, from your boss’s or client’s eyes, if there’s a fire and you know about it and don’t tell them immediately, they’ll actually blame you (at least in part), or be really unhappy that you didn’t notify them as soon as you knew. Even if it is a small fire; the anger will probably increase in proportion to the severity of the problem. Perhaps this chapter shouldn’t be about how to make your client or boss love you, but how to make sure they don’t get angry at you, and the key there is to look them in the eye and tell them when there’s a problem.
And when you do that, if it’s your fault, make sure you apply all the suggestions from the chapter on taking responsibility for it. When you do that, it’s not nearly as bad as when you just point fingers, by an order of magnitude.
