I was working with a sharp young manager recently and he asked me a good question. One of his skips had done something that required some pretty simple, but important, feedback. (Remember, a skip is someone who reports to one of your directs - they are “two levels down.”)

He said, “I know we’ve got to address it, but who should do it? I mean, I kind of want to, but I wasn’t there, so if it comes from me, it’s hearsay.”

I have heard managers use that term before many times, to suggest that they weren’t there at the moment something occurred, and so they didn’t get involved, or didn’t pursue a situation, or give feedback, or take action in some form.

Because it would be “hearsay”.

“Hearsay” comes from the legal world (at least in the US). It is a rule of evidence ( I think), and it means that what someone says to someone else isn’t permissible somehow.

I’m not a lawyer…

…and as managers, neither are you.

Hearsay is NOT a prohibition for management action. Sometimes applying concepts from other professions is good, but sometimes not. If managers were to “first do no harm,” then nobody would ever get fired. (That line is a broad modern paraphrase of part of the medical doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, a truly lovely tradition). If managers had to fact check everything to ensure not just accuracy but truth - as journalists are asked to do - we’d rarely get anything done.

Just because you hear something from someone else doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act on it. Hearing something from someone else as a manager is NOT HEARSAY… it’s just hearing something from someone else.

I’ll tell you what’s worse than the fear of a hearsay backlash. Worse is your boss hearing that you knew that something happened (regardless of how you knew - bet she doesn’t care), and that you didn’t do anything, because of “hearsay”.

Because “asleep at the switch” is far worse an accusation than hearsay.

Oh, I know. Some of you are going to suggest that I’m now going to go off half-cocked and pursue every rumor. No, I’m not. I’m going to consider the source, and if I think it’s credible, and believe some management action would be helpful, I’m going to act.

Hearsay be damned.

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 2:24 pm and is filed under general.

Trackback URL for this post: http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/07/management-hearsay/trackback/