February Feature

Monthly Lessons in Leadership from the Daily News

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Could Toyoda Lead Tiger Out of the Woods?

How they fill the communication gap will determine their fate

Tiger Wood’s will apparently issue an in-person public statement this Friday, the first time he has shown his face since his family and professional life started unraveling after he mysteriously “crashed his SUV in his driveway” at Thanksgiving.  News reports (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2010-02-17-tiger-woods-talks_N.htm) indicate that he will offer some form of televised apology to a room full of friends and well wishers but will take no questions.  If so, it will be an ignominious next step in a trail of misdeeds and mistakes that highlight an important, although tragic, lesson in leadership.

His misdeeds were many, including being unfaithful to his wife, being untrue to his stated values, and placing others in untenable positions to hide his indiscretions.  However, his biggest mistake had to do with his communications – or lack thereof.  The most famous name in golf has been virtually silent on the events surrounding the debacle, letting others fill the void with whatever information they wished.  A posted statement taking some responsibility for the sordid events did little more than confirm our worst fears, far short of being forthcoming or proactive at a critical time.

His lack of communication dramatized an important leadership principle taken directly from Mother Nature, in fact, “the woods.”  The principle is “nature abhors a vacuum,” meaning that when there is a void of flora and fauna, the empty space will eventually be filled with plants and animals of some variety.  Even parking lots will one day break apart and yield to the forces of nature if left alone to do so.  

Since Thanksgiving, the void of information left by Mr. Woods has been filled daily with other people’s version of what transpired, including accusers who were never under oath.  This allowed an embarrassing and humiliating chapter in his life to become even more devastating to his family and career.

New managers naively assume they can control information, but experienced leaders eventually learn that voids of this nature will be filled anyway, so they might as well be the ones doing it – and with the correct information.  New and experienced leaders struggle to balance the short-term downsides of being proactive about bad news with the long-term gains of being forthright.  In truth, the latter mitigates the damage and builds credibility while the former exacerbates problems and undermines trust. 

A somewhat better example than Tiger Woods comes from the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, who has at least placed himself in the uncomfortable public spotlight to take responsibility and apologize for Toyota’s malfunctioning vehicles, recalls, and loss of customer confidence.  As a result, Toyota has a fighting chance to stay competitive and eventually win back market share.  Had he not done so, the organization would be relentlessly punished by stakeholders and customers, just as Tiger is continuing to be discredited.

While Toyota has a long way to go to get out of their particular “woods,” they have at least started the process. Tiger has hardly begun.