Is it you or your team?

Building a strong team that is capable and motivated to succeed takes a lot of time and patience. Many times, as owners, we tend to take the easy route of blaming our team for things that aren't going according to the plan. That environment can be a discouraging place to work. Everyone suffers and success may not occur, for anyone, including you.

A long time ago, I received great advice from a boss. He was the owner of a company that took pride in always trying to make his team better. He told me that good news should travel fast but bad news should travel faster. That's a great mindset, but what if your boss screams at you every time you bring bad news? You probably aren't going to bring that bad news too often. Here's an approach to think about.

Encourage your team to bring bad news to you. Take the attitude that this is a problem for the 2 of you to solve. Once you have solved the problem, talk about how this problem can be prevented in the future. This cooperation is going to build a tighter bond with your team and it's also going to allow bad news to travel fast.