It is never good for a newspaper when it becomes the story.
That is the position The Washington Post is now in after revelations about the questionable practices its new CEO, Will Lewis, used to land big exclusives when he was in leadership roles in U.K. newsrooms. (The practices included paying for information, methods that are barred under the ethics codes of major American newspapers, including the Post.) Lewis named a former colleague, Robert Winnett, to be the new editor of the Post, but Winnett later withdrew after stories revealed that he also had crossed ethical lines. The focus has now turned to the Post’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos — will he continue to back Lewis, or will he cut bait?
Although the specifics of Lewis’s situation are unique, his predicament provides a case study in what happens when an organization brings in an outsider to lead it and the newcomer gets off to a rocky or controversial start. In this article, I outline three lessons that leaders (and those hiring them) can take from events at The Post, and then I offer direct advice for boards and new leaders who find themselves in a similar situation.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.