Leadership Tips: Secret Squirrel

It's one thing to lead and another to find that people actually follow you. What makes you want to follow some people and not others? I will try to keep these tips practical and useful enough so you can use them as soon as you've read them.

What do you do when...a coworker confronts you with a question about something you're not supposed to discuss? In fact, the information they're asking for is so sensitive, it could jeopardize people's jobs.

Things like that happen every day. There are plenty of good reasons to control the flow of some information. Maybe it involves a disciplinary action. There are many things you can't discuss about discipline without violating someone's rights. Maybe it involves a pending contract that your indiscretion could jeopardize. And maybe it involves a colleague's private life, like issues of illness or divorce. (That kind of information usually constitutes gossip unless it comes from its source.) But in any of these instances, you can spill the beans either by sharing information or by doing a poor job of not sharing it. And you can hurt a lot of people when you agree to be discreet about something and then blab anyway.

Don't fall into the trap of making exceptions for trusted acquaintances. You don't honor them by betraying others. Instead, you make them responsible for things they're not supposed to know. If you agree to keep your mouth shut, that's what you have to do. Every time you make an exception, you betray the original holder of information--and you communicate to whomever you share it with that you can't be trusted. Not only that, but you bet the original source's information on somebody else's discretion. That's downright silly.

Of course, none of us are perfect, and nobody has the right answer to every question on demand. Sometimes people ask us questions that are hard to answer without giving away information--especially people like paramedics, many of whom are skilled interviewers. What's a leader supposed to do?

Maybe it's a good idea to preplan--have a generic answer ready in advance that you can use as a springboard. It could go like this: "You know, your question deserves an answer, and I do have some information. But I don't have it all, and if I'm not careful I could jeopardize the welfare of some very good people. I think we'll all know more about this in the next _________ (give a reasonable time frame)." You can use something like that to get you started on the right foot, then adapt what you say next to fit the situation.

Of course, it may be simpler than that. For instance, if you don't know something, you can simply say so. And the fact that someone asks you to keep something confidential doesn't always mean you have to agree- especially if it's about something malicious or unethical. Refusing to protect that kind of information is not betrayal. Protecting it may be.

Thom Dick has been involved in EMS for 35 years, 23 of them as a full-time EMT and paramedic in San Diego County. He is currently the quality care coordinator for Platte Valley Ambulance Service, a community-owned, hospital-based 9-1-1 provider in Brighton, CO. Contact him at boxcar414@aol.com.