In the Marine Corps, there's an expression: A commander can be forgiven for being defeated but never for being surprised. ~Jake Auchincloss

This is a continuation of the "boiled frog" discussion.

The introductory installment outlined why and how leaders get boiled.

Here's a brief summary:  1) People don't like change and confrontation.  They have a vested interest in making sure their leaders do not "get disturbed" and make changes.  2) They keep bosses from rocking the boat by filtering and limiting the information they get, by flattery, and by no longer giving you course-correcting feedback.

Some leaders prefer to keep sycophants around them and live in a state of denial.  It can be rather pleasant.

But if you find the thought of getting slowly boiled unappealing, here are six ways to stay out of the pot.

1. Meet with the Front Line
2. Go to the Biggest Problem
3. Demonstrate a Love of Bad News
4. Flatten the Hierarchy
5. Ignore the Cheers
6. Establish Operating Mechanisms to Increase Your Surface Area Exposure to Critical Information

To make this article shorter and easier to digest, I will cover first three here and the remaining three in a follow-up.

The acid test as to how important you really think this approach to avoiding becoming a boiled frog would be to look at your calendar for the past six months and the next six months and see how many front line listening sessions you scheduled.

Meet with the Front Line.  This is a bit of a no-brainer as it is common knowledge that senior leaders need to get unfiltered information from the front lines.

But I mention it because, while widely known, it is a surprising how infrequently senior leaders get out there.

First, here are some perspectives and approaches on the practice.

Sam Walton, in his autobiography, reminds leaders of the frog boiling tendency of their teams:  "Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking.  The folks on the front lines, the ones who actually talk to your customer, are the only ones who really know what is going on.  You better find out what they know because your executives have a tendency to hide that information."

Jim Casey founded UPS and ran it for 55 years.  Anytime he was driving and saw a UPS truck he would tell his own driver to stop the car and he would go talk to the truck driver to find out what was working well and what was making it more difficult for the driver to do his job.

And when you meet with front-line workers, here are a couple stone-simple questions you can ask them:  1) what is your best idea to improve the company?  2) what is the stupidest thing we are doing as a company?

The acid test as to how important you really think this approach to avoiding becoming a boiled frog would be to look at your calendar for the past six months and the next six months and see how many front line listening sessions you scheduled.

The coalface is the bleeding edge, where the work on the hardest business problem is being done.  It is also the one place where there is zero chance of being boiled by slow moving, filtered information.

Get Close to the Biggest Problems.  Nvidia's Jesen Huang is always working on the most critical problems in his company. 

In a meeting Gavin Baker had with Jensen Huang, Jensen said "I have no fixed schedule.  I have no standing meetings.  I just find out what is the most important problem in the company. I go and set up my desk in that area and i pull the best resources to work on that problem.  And I love it."

The coalface is the exposed surface of a coal seam from which the coal is being extracted.  The coalface is the bleeding edge, where the work on the hardest business problem is being done.  It is also the one place where there is zero chance of being boiled by slow moving, filtered information.  You have direct access to what is happening, the blockages, what's needed, and the next steps.

What enables the willingness to "run into burning buildings" is another key for staying out of the pot:  demonstrating a love of bad news.

We do these six page memos, we read them together and then we have a messy discussion.  The memo should be like angels singing from on high.  It is so clear and so beautiful.  And the meeting should be messy.  I am very skeptical if the meeting is not messy. 

Demonstrate a Love of Bad News. In the first installment, where I outlined why and how leaders end up in the pot, I relayed a Gavin Baker story.  His dad was a bankruptcy attorney, who used to tell him the #1 thing bankrupt companies have in common were CEOs who did not like to hear bad news. 

Gavin went on to describe how Jensen and other leaders he has worked with love hearing bad news.  In those companies, if there is bad news it must immediately go to them.

When Jeff Bezos was CEO of Amazon, he also saw the filtration problem on the information he was getting and he operationalized a solution by creating specific meeting norms to head it off.

"I don't wake up and think "how am i going to exercise my power today.  I wake up and I follow my curiosity.  I've always been a wanderer.  I even organized Amazon meetings with this.  I want crisp documents and messy meetings.  I want the meetings to wander. Most of the meetings that are useful need to wander.  We do these six page memos, we read them together and then we have a messy discussion.  The memo should be like angels singing from on high.  It is so clear and so beautiful.  And the meeting should be messy.  I am very skeptical if the meeting is not messy.  One time, I could tell in the meeting that the team had rehearsed the meeting.  I said, 'Did you guys rehearse this meeting?' They said yes and I said, 'Don't do that again.' You might want to rehearse a sales meeting but for meetings with the CEO, you're seeking truth.  Not a pitch.  I don't want to be pitched.  That is why messy is good.  You don't want the whole thing to be figured out and then presented to you.  You want to be part of the sausage making.  You want to make sure they are showing you the ugly bits.  I also ask if there are any dissenting opinions. I always want to get to the controversy." 

You don't have to spend your business day exclusively seeking and focusing on bad news.  Just make sure your team knows that what you want is the truth...good or bad.  Pro Tip:  they will know by how you react.

"Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want to be told the truth."  ~Nick Saban Hall of Fame College Football Coach

In the next article, I will cover the remaining three: Flatten the Hierarchy, Ignore the Cheers, and Establish Operating Mechanisms to Increase the Chances of Getting Particularly Critical Information.

Dennis Adsit, Ph.D. is an executive coach, organization consultant, and designer of The First 100 Days and Beyond, a consulting service that has helped hundreds of newly hired and promoted executives get great starts in challenging new jobs.