CEO communication
by Miki SaxonI read an article yesterday about a CEO who violated many of the principles of MAP and good management.
The CEO is Jobster’s Jason Goldberg.
First, I want it known that I don’t know Jason Goldberg, nor have I followed the situation in the blogsphere. I read Damon Darlin’s article January 23 in the NYTimes and chased down the other references.
The highlights, taken from the article are
- On Dec. 22, the post summarized five company achievements
- On Dec. 26, employees were reminded to use up their vacation days (the post has been removed)
- On Jan. 3, he announced a layoff of 40% of the staff, among other changes.
- In the article, he excused his actions by claiming, “It’s the nature of Web 2.0 and new media that if you don’t embrace openness, it will come back and bite you.”
To me, in my possible myopia, this isn’t about Why CEOs shouldn’t blog, it’s about whether enabling rumor is good management.
I’ve commented in the past on how to handle bad news and that trust is the basis of a company’s street reputation and the importance of that rep in attracting and retaining staff.
Layoff rumors have damaged employee moral before, during and after the fact long before there was an Internet, let alone a blogsphere; rumors of all kinds have wreaked economic damage on companies and even countries.
The best CEOs understand this; they understand that openness and honesty from the corner office builds trust, that trust engenders loyalty, and that loyalty pays. They also know that none of this is a creation of Web 2.0
My only other thought is a question. I wonder who actually wrote the January 3 post. Read them both, from style to language to construction they certainly seem to come from different pen…I mean keyboards.
