"The wooden door swelled in the August heat. Multiple maintenance requests were made, and yet, weeks later, the problem remained unresolved. I went door to door to every room and found out how long people were waiting to have their urgent maintenance requests resolved. As it turns out, there was a process problem. I bypassed the usual channels and went with my list straight to the head of campus residences."
"You see, the higher a leader rises, the less likely they are to hear honest feedback or unfiltered reality. That's because asking the right questions and staying grounded in what's happening is a skill in itself. When leaders don't do it, it costs the organization. A leader might be making poor decisions due to inaccurate or incomplete data. Incomplete truths can lead to low psychological safety and trust, which we know can lead to disastrous outcomes."
Senior leaders frequently remain insulated from frontline realities because intermediaries protect them, often unintentionally. Process failures and communication breakdowns hide urgent problems from decision-makers. Lack of honest feedback leads to decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate data, eroding psychological safety, trust, and innovation. Cultural blind spots increase the risk of ethical and reputational failures. Bypassing inadequate channels and exposing leaders to verified frontline information can surface root-process problems and prompt corrective action. Building skills in asking the right questions and creating environments that welcome dissent are necessary to prevent costly organizational failures.
Read at Fast Company
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