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This Moment: The Blog - Jessica C. McWade, Ed.D.

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Blowing in the Wind

January 14, 2013

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Beijing air quality levels 40x World Health Organization ceilings today. Massive sickness. China cannot possibly maintain its growth trajectory without solving these systemic challenges. Twitter @jessicamcwade

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"Bad News Takes the Elevator"

The Council on Foreign Relations heard from Ajay Banda this afternoon, Executive Chairman of Mastercard. He reminded us that one key to effective operational leadership is to create environments in which employees are relatively unafraid to deliver bad news. "Bad news takes the elevator and good news takes the stairs," he said, underscoring the importance of raising negative issues as soon as possible in order to confront, understand, and resolve them. No doubt speaking from personal experience, Banda said that "people love to feed you good news when you're the boss. You have to make them feel okay delivering bad news and then you have to live up to it." He added an important and understandable exception to his rule, however, indicating that "if you bring me bad news three times and you're the cause of it in each case, then we'll need to have a discussion." He believes in the power of listening with patience and acting with urgency, reminding u

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