In Uncertain Times, Transparent Leadership Is Essential

There’s too often a tendency, even with the best leaders, to look to the immediate for insights about how to fix what ails them and to lead better. The fact is, every generation has its timeless lessons, and for the 1980s, the Tylenol crisis stands above as a lesson worth relearning.

In the fall of 1982, a to this day unidentified wrongdoer opened the then easily accessible bottles of the pain reliever and laced the capsules with cyanide, placing them back on store shelves for unsuspecting consumers to buy. Seven died. At the time of this tragedy, Tylenol was among the most trusted consumer products. Even so, in the earliest weeks of the crisis, the harm seemed near irreparable. 

The fact is, in such circumstances, most senior leaders look to distance themselves, or to blame or bury the bad news. The leadership at Tylenol and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, chose a different path. In a word, they chose transparency. 

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