There’s a saying in the military that if you see something below standard and do nothing, then you’ve set a new standard.

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He was fond of saying that most reps had a Wizard of Oz problem: they lacked either the courage, the brain, or the heart to be successful by themselves.

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A common management adage is “Don’t bring me a problem without bringing me a solution.” This idea encourages ownership, empowerment, and responsibility among the employees, but it has a dark side. For one thing, what employees are likely to hear is just “Don’t bring me a problem.” At a deeper level, what if you know about a problem but can’t solve it? What if you’re an engineer who sees a fundamental weakness in your software architecture, but doesn’t have the authority or expertise to fix it? How can you solve that without help? If you encourage bad news, you must be careful not to disempower people in doing so.

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When I heard about a problem, I tried to see ecstatic. I’d say, “Isn’t it great we found out about this before it killed us?” Or, “This is going to make the company so much stronger once we solve it.” People take their cues from the leader, so if you’re okay with bad news, they’ll be okay, too. Good CEOs run toward the pain and the darkness; eventually they even learn to enjoy it.

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Many managers want to attend executive staff meetings, as it makes them feel needed and it puts them in the know. I made use of this desire by setting a price of admission to the meeting: you had to fess up to at least one thing that was “on fire.” I’d say, “I know, with great certainty, that there are things that are completely broken in our company and I want to know what they are. If you don’t know what they are, then you are of no use to me in this meeting.”

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help uncover bad news. Questions such as,” Is there anything that’s preventing you from getting your job done?” or “If you were me, what would you change in the company?” The more you demonstrate genuine eagerness to discover bad news, and genuine supportiveness once it’s discovered, the more open they’ll be to opening up.

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People don’t leave companies, they leave managers.