Chad SilversteinBuilt To Lead · Entrepreneur , Advisor, & Thought Leader

Real Leaders Don’t Blindside Their People

Name: Real Leaders Don’t Blindside Their People
Uploaded: 2025-04-27T04:00:37+00:00
Duration: 1 min
Channel: Chad Silverstein
Description: Chad Silverstein argues that bad surprises damage teams far more than good ones help them. Leaders should share bad news fast, directly, and without…

27 Apr 2025 · 1 min

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Chad Silverstein argues that bad surprises damage teams far more than good ones help them. Leaders should share bad news fast, directly, and without spin. Waiting to deliver tough messages only makes things worse.

Chapters

If there's one thing a leader should not do, it's surprise people with bad surprises. There's nothing worse than a bad surprise. More good surprises. Focus on having good surprises. But when you have bad surprises because of a lack of communication and you're surprising someone with bad news, it's just the worst. And if you have bad news, well, if it's something that you have to deliver, then you got to deliver it and you got to not spin it and you got to just tell people how it is. You know, it's easy for leaders to stand up in front of their company and tell everyone about all the good news. It's another thing for the leader to have to stand up and tell them the truth when things are tough. But you got to do it. But don't wait. And a bad surprise usually is because someone waited. Look, if you've got bad news, bad news is bad news. But making it worse because you delayed it and you were scared or you were trying to spin it, there's nothing worse than that. So more good surprises, less bad surprises. And if you have a bad surprise, just be clear, concise, direct, and straight, and just tell people. And don't delay it.