Harvard Business Publishing

Three issues that executives of the Detroit 3 should have considered before asking Congress for a bridge loan.

How we will spend taxpayers' money.

Why the domestic industry is important to the health and welfare of our nation.

If these questions around these issues had been answered in plain and simple terms, questions about why each CEO took his own corporate jet to Washington may have raised eyebrows, but not ire. While each of the Detroit 3 CEOs is an accomplished executive, their collective inability to address key issues made their companies appear to be less capable of survival.

So how can an executive avoid appearing like a deer caught in the headlights? The answer is straightforward: create a culture of questioning. Here are some suggestions.

Set the tone. The reason that senior leaders sometimes appear to be so out of touch is because well, they are. Too many of them are cocooned in bubbles that insulate them from the real world. Remember years ago when George H.W. Bush running for president in 1988 was awed by a checkout scanner? Well, Mr. Bush had an excuse; he was a sitting Vice President surrounded by Secret Service for the previous seven years. Too many CEOs impose a similar level of insulation (more for comfort than security) and as a result lose touch with the reality their customers and their competitors are experiencing. Genuine leaders regularly meet with their employees, customers, and key stakeholders and make certain to have open and honest conversations with each.

Ask to be challenged. In tough times, execution needs to be done with urgency. Yet only a foolish executive would allow his initiatives to go unquestioned. But how often have we seen companies pursue courses of action that seem so wrong from the outside yet appear so right from the inside? It is because no one inside the company is allowed to ask hard questions that challenge the status quo.

Map consequences. Pursuing a course of action requires a consideration of consequences. To a degree, companies do "war game" outcomes but typically within a given set of parameters. Too few executives are expected to ask the "game changing" questions that will alter the playing field. Not only do those questions need to be asked; their solutions need to be mapped to the nth degree so that alternatives can be considered and planned for.

The crisis that Detroit automakers are experiencing now is not all of their own making. This crisis was precipitated in part by senior executives in the financial services industries who, contrary to their own internal compasses, acted as if credit were cheap and would never have to be paid back with real money. Again, this was a failure to challenge assumptions and consider consequences.

Senior leaders must continue to ask themselves tough questions. More importantly they must make themselves available to be challenged by the brightest minds they can find inside and outside their organizations. Executives won't always get things right, but they will certainly not appear so ill-prepared to influence public opinion.