If ever there was a guy who might want to disappear after a disaster, it’s Joe Girardi, manager of the New York Yankees. His team lost the American League Championship in a humiliating four-game sweep – the team’s first in thirty-six years. But instead of hiding away until spring training, Girardi went public. It’s a lesson in risk communication many CEOs could learn.
Thursday night, in the post-game news conference that every manager is obliged to do, Girardi spoke openly about the Yankees’ defeat, his 
controversial benching of Alex Rodriguez and the dormant bats of a team that posted a record number of home runs this year. That press conference could have been the end of it. But Girardi appeared on Mike Francesa’s afternoon radio program Friday and gave him a lengthy and remarkably candid interview. Three points stood out:
1. He didn’t duck the tough issues. Girardi answered all the tough questions – and there were many of them – about the team’s future, A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, the pitching staff. His answers were direct, open and credible.
2. He gave a consistent message inside the locker room and outside. We can’t know exactly what Girardi said to the team after last night’s loss, but during the interview he made several references to messages he gave them, like taking pride in their season, particularly their success in a close division race against Baltimore. On the air, he didn’t single out any player for criticism, and he surely didn’t in the locker room either (we would have heard about it if he had). Whatever criticism he voiced about a player was reserved for a private conversation. And there were several of those for sure, starting with Alex Rodriguez.
3. He wasn’t afraid to acknowledge his emotions. Girardi is passionate about the game and his team, and it showed. The best leaders usually are. Performing in a high stakes setting like a league championship takes every ounce of skill, sweat and energy you’ve got, and it’s an emotional ordeal, win or lose. Leaders should be emotionally engaged just as much as they are mentally engaged. Girardi clearly was.
Sadly, we almost never hear CEOs take such a candid approach when dealing with failings in their organizations. Many executives never show up at all. Where was Larry Page after Google’s earnings debacle, for instance? He and other CEOs can learn a lot from watching Joe Girardi deal with defeat.