​“When was the last time you stood up and delivered bad news?  It can be scary and uncomfortable.  As humans, our instinct is to want to be liked by those around us, but truly brave leaders know that if we want to make change, sometimes we have to deliver the cold, unpalatable truth.”  (GREAT TED TALKS:  Leadership, Harriet Minter)

Harriet Miller’s quote is simple, honest and complete in its analysis of how difficult it is to try Telling People What They DON’T Want To Hear!  Think about it.  As was “distantly” discussed in earlier III messages…EVERYONE is faced with this responsibility at some point.  This setting may occur in a supervisor-to-employee, friend-to-friend, mentor-to-client, counselor-to-participant and of course parent-to-son or daughter situation.  In every case it becomes a leaders role to effectively define and explain the problem and hopefully find a way to a positive solution.

Those who are not “brave leaders” may choose to delay, avoid, ignore, hope the bad news goes away or that someone else delivers the bad news message.  However none of these options help any problem…instead they may even contribute to making it  bigger!

The main point of this TRIPLE III TIME message concerning the Leadership At It’s Toughest:  Telling People What They DON’T Want To Hear! topic, is to recommend always taking a BRAVE LEADER role.  Remember the saying:  If not you…then who?  I think it is necessary to apply this question when addressing a bad news issue.  Would you want someone else to explain the problem, consider appropriate discipline or propose a good solution?  

I believe YOU know my BRAVE LEADER answer.