When an executive misses revenue targets or faces a board after a major problem, the explanation that 'nobody told me' may not hold up, according to executive coach and former Paramount Pictures senior executive Joel Berman.
Berman, who spent years in senior roles including President of Worldwide Television Distribution at Paramount, now coaches executives on the realities of leadership. He says the higher a leader climbs, the harder it becomes to see what is actually happening below.
The problem, Berman explains, is not that employees want to push every issue upward. 'They're thinking, This is my responsibility. I'm supposed to fix it,' Berman said. 'They want to be viewed as somebody who has a good handle on the business and gets things done.'
But when 'I'll handle it' becomes 'I'll wait to tell anyone until I've handled it,' the choices available to leadership may shrink dramatically. 'If I would have known about this earlier, we could have taken some steps to try to mitigate it,' Berman said. 'If you know in advance, you can ask: What can we do? What's the issue? Why is this not happening? But if you find out after the fact, there's nothing you can do.'
For example, if a business is likely to miss revenue expectations, early warning allows leaders to adjust expenses, move resources, intervene in the underlying issue, or prepare the CEO and board. Late discovery eliminates those options.
Yet Berman places ultimate responsibility on the executive. 'It's your fault because you didn't know about it,' he said. 'Yes, it's their fault too, but it's on you.' A leader who blames subordinates for not speaking up invites an uncomfortable follow-up: what about their leadership discouraged open communication?
Berman speaks from experience, including his own mistakes. 'I'd like to think I was the kind of leader that people could bring problems to, but I don't think I always reacted in a consistent manner,' he said. Employees notice how leaders react to bad news. If someone is reproached for delivering it, others learn to stay silent, and an open-door policy becomes meaningless.
To avoid that, Berman recommends regular, structured communication with direct reports, such as weekly or biweekly one-on-ones, where both successes and concerns can be shared. 'You want to create a structure and a culture that encourages open communication,' he said.
The goal is not to have every problem escalated, but to ensure that the people closest to the work understand what leadership needs to know and feel comfortable sharing it before circumstances make the conversation unavoidable. As Berman sees it, knowing what is happening is itself part of the job at the top. Eventually, 'they didn't tell me' raises a harder question: 'Why didn't you know?'
Berman, who has been an executive coach for the past 10 years, works with leaders navigating executive responsibility and organizational leadership. More information is available at Joel Berman and JoelPBerman.com.
