One of my CEOs just surprised me!  I just did a pre-board meeting call, scheduled at the last minute.  Actually, I just did two of these in two days.

I think of this as the “bad news call” — when the CEO sends me an email and says he just wants to catch up on something before the meeting, but gives no indication of what it is, I’m left speculating:  who’s quitting?  who did we fire?  how badly did we miss the quarter?

It’s borne of a good impulse: if you have bad news, you should absolutely get out in front of it, and diffuse it 1-on-1 with individual board members.  If you don’t, you risk the conversation going in a way you didn’t expect, or the group getting in a downward spiral.  It’s absolutely best practice to handle it this way.

But … Read More »