My staff is probably tired of me saying it, but I have used the old adage “Communicate early and often” well, and I am not trying to be funny here, ...often. Maybe it's because I am officially the oldest guy in the office and I have seen things in my lifetime get messed up badly, simply because party A was not talking to Party B. Bad things happen in a vacuum.
They also know, I am not a fan of the “work from home” approach that some companies employ. It's not because of lack of trust, but for purposes of more effective communication because, again as I say with some frequency “face-to-face meetings are better than phone calls, and phone calls are better than email”.
Not said, but implied, is that ”email is better than tweeting”. Thankfully, we are not yet tweeting at one another in our office, so I can leave that part out.
So, I was disturbed to read in a Wall Street Journal article last Saturday about possible changes in the Trump Administration which stated that “Another consideration is scaling back on daily press briefings.”
I understand that President Trump is not happy with the press coverage he has received since he won the election last November. He clearly feels mistreated by the press and believes that problems of his administration and indeed the country, are compounded by their actions. I would argue that he has exacerbated the problem greatly by his own actions, including calling the press out as enemies, and not being fully transparent on many issues.
I am sure President Trump disagrees with me completely, but either way, one thing I know is that you can't fix a problem by hiding from it. Scaling back on daily press briefings will not improve things for his administration or for the country. He will not be able to tweet his way into the hearts and minds of the majority of the company who have concerns about his administration. All good leaders understand the importance of communicating early and often, to get their messages out, whatever they are. To hide from this important responsibility is just cowardly. Bad things happen in a vacuum.
Briefings
They also know, I am not a fan of the “work from home” approach that some companies employ. It's not because of lack of trust, but for purposes of more effective communication because, again as I say with some frequency “face-to-face meetings are better than phone calls, and phone calls are better than email”.
Not said, but implied, is that ”email is better than tweeting”. Thankfully, we are not yet tweeting at one another in our office, so I can leave that part out.
So, I was disturbed to read in a Wall Street Journal article last Saturday about possible changes in the Trump Administration which stated that “Another consideration is scaling back on daily press briefings.”
I understand that President Trump is not happy with the press coverage he has received since he won the election last November. He clearly feels mistreated by the press and believes that problems of his administration and indeed the country, are compounded by their actions. I would argue that he has exacerbated the problem greatly by his own actions, including calling the press out as enemies, and not being fully transparent on many issues.
I am sure President Trump disagrees with me completely, but either way, one thing I know is that you can't fix a problem by hiding from it. Scaling back on daily press briefings will not improve things for his administration or for the country. He will not be able to tweet his way into the hearts and minds of the majority of the company who have concerns about his administration. All good leaders understand the importance of communicating early and often, to get their messages out, whatever they are. To hide from this important responsibility is just cowardly. Bad things happen in a vacuum.
Briefings
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