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Jack Welch was the CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. Under his leadership the GE stock went up by 4,000 per cent, making it the most valuable company in the world. Fortune named him the ‘Manager of the Century’ in 1999

Suzy Welch is a former editor of Harvard Business Review. She is also the co-author of Jack Welch’s latest book Winning

You can e-mail Jack and Suzy Welch questions at winning@nytimes.com

(Please include your name, occupation, city and country)

Even though my company is a very competitive industry and we need to move fast and decisively, I've noticed that people rarely say what they mean to each other – particularly in meetings. There's just so much beating-around-the-bush and general phoniness. I'm just a middle manager. What can I do?
– A reader from a technology company

What you describe is one of the most common and destructive problems in business, and in society, for that matter – the lack of candour. No matter where we travel, we hear about organisations that are slowed down and gummed up by the very human tendency to soften hard, urgent messages with false kindness or phony optimism. This tendency is particularly prevalent when it comes to communicating about poor performance. Very often, bosses don't come right out and tell under-performers how badly they are doing until, in a burst of frustration, they fire them. That's terribly unfair to the person at the receiving end and often very disruptive to the business itself.

But lack of candour doesn't just pervade perfor-mance evaluations. It cripples lots of conversations – many about how and when and where to spend scarce company resources. Yes, these kinds of conversations can be hard, sensitive, politically loaded, or complex, or all of the above. But they will simply be better if they are candid.

So, what can you do? The only option we know of is having the guts to start using candour yourself, even if you have limited power in the organisation. When people use double-talk, push back with questions that cut through the nonsense and probe for reality. Ask, "What are you really trying to tell us?" or say, "What I hear you saying is..." and deliver the straight message yourself for confirmation.

Introducing candour to an organisation, of course, is not without risk. In fact, it can be a total shock to the system, and being the first one to use it can get you killed – that is, marginalised or thrown out. But should you decide to ‘get candid’ anyway, go slow and use humour when possible. In the best-case scenario, your candour will eventually be rewarded with candour in return – and sometimes the change is faster than you would imagine. As soon as many people experience candour, they can't understand how they ever did business without it.

For the past two years, I have mana-ged 'Charles', who always delivers the numbers. He also alienates everyone by playing favourites, being arrogant and acting secretive. Part of me wants to fire the guy. The other part can't imagine living without him. What's your advice?
– Frankfurt, Germany

Confront him, and then fire him if he refuses to change because, if you have ever opened your mouth at work and praised values like fairness, transparency and information sharing, you have no choice. By stark contrast, to let Charles stay would be to inform your employees that everything you say is drivel.

If you want certain behaviours from your people, and you advocate for them as part of a winning approach to business and life, then you have to reward the people who demonstrate them. Equally important, you have to get rid of the people who don't. And this is key: Don't get rid of ‘value offen-ders’ surreptitiously, with excuses like "Charles left for personal reasons, to spend more time with his family." You need to stand up and publicly announce that Charles was asked to leave because he didn't adhere to specific company values. You can be sure that Charles' replacement will act differently, not to mention anyone else doubting your commitment to the values. Obviously every company wants people who deliver great results, as Charles does. Your goal is to make sure that your employees can do that and demonstrate good behaviours at the same time. No one should get ahead on the backs of other people. All that does is build an atmosphere of resentment and fear. Sure, you can win with that kind of culture - but not for very long.

So grit your teeth and get rid of Charles. It may be painful for a minute, but you'll quickly be surprised by the increased effort – and improved results – that you get from the rest of the team because you decided to stand up and walk the talk.

What's better: To work for a bad boss at a good company, or a good boss at a weak company?
– A reader

We've gotten this question several times while travelling around the world, and we have been amazed at how split audiences seem on the answer. Amazed, because to us this is an absolute no-brainer. If you had to pick between these options, by all means, work for the good company.

Here's our reasoning. If you are truly at a good company, its leaders will eventually find the bad boss and get him or her out. That can take time – months, or even a year or more. In that case, you might even be rewarded with a promotion for having delivered results during your ordeal. After all, everyone's been there at some point in his or her career, toiling for someone moody, mean or just plain incompetent. But even if you're not promoted for your ‘hardship duty’, you will still be better off for having endured. You will be able to stay where you are in the good company with a new and better boss or move sideways to a fresh opportunity. Remember: any experience you get at a good company, around smart people, is worthwhile, and a good company's reputation gives you an excellent career credential down the road, if you need it.

Now think about the other scenario. Without question, having a good boss is one of life's best experiences. Good bosses can make work fun, meaningful and all those warm, fuzzy things. Good bosses can make work feel like a home away from home. They can make your team feel like a family. In some cases, they can even make you feel like you've found a long-lost friend or finally gotten parental approval.

But the good boss/weak company dynamic is a velvet coffin. All bosses eventually depart - moved up, out or sideways. And someday your good boss will leave you, too. In fact, good bosses in weak companies are especially vulnerable to change because they have the extra stress of protecting their people from the impact of the company's lar-ger problems. This burden can wear them out or make them political pariahs or both. Either way, in time, they go.

In other words, the great feeling you get from working for a good boss in weak company is only temporary. Your boss will leave, but the weak company will still be there, and you won't be able to do a thing about it. You'll be trapped. Getting a new job after you've worked at a company with a mediocre or poor reputation is hard. It's almost as if you are tainted.

In some ways, this question comes down to a choice between short and long-term gains. In the short term, working for a bad boss – even in a good company – can be a living hell. But in the long term, when he or she is gone, at least you'll have the opportunity to move on. Working for a good boss in the short term, of course, can be thoroughly enjoyable, even when the company is collapsing around you. Long-term, however, those happy vibes will come back to bite you. Your boss will be gone, and all you'll have is a second-rate credential and nice memories. By all means, do your career a favour and get your memories elsewhere.

My small company was recently acquired by a global corporation and I can't stand what's going on. In trying to make us just like them, the new owners are killing what made us worth acquiring in the first place. I love my old company but I am thinking about getting out of here. Should I?
– A senior manager at a conference in New York

Your language says it all: ‘the new owners’, you say, and ‘my old company’. You sound just like the bane of every acquiring company in the history of mergers. You're a resister, and if you don't change your ways, you probably won't last anyway.

Now, we definitely don't want to belittle how hard it is to go through an acquisition. When your company is bought or folded into another entity – even as a ‘merger of equals’ – it can absolutely feel like a death has occurred. Every work relationship you've had is ruptured. Every achievement you've posted is pretty much forgotten. The future looks very uncertain, and often grim. Overall, for people at the company being bought, acquisitions usually feel absolutely awful. But you have to face reality. When good companies make acquisitions, the buyers feel terrific. They are excited, filled with optimism and dreaming about all the opportunities that their new purchase will bring. (After all, they've usually paid a lot for it.) One of those opportunities is the chance to find great people within the acquired company. In fact, smart acquirers are thinking, "We've just lan-ded a whole new pool of players to choose from."

As the new owners go about picking the best and brightest from the combined teams, they are looking for two things: talent and commitment. But make no mistake – they want those two traits blen-ded in each individual. Talent alone is not enough. If there is one thing we have learned from working through and watching hundreds of mergers and acquisitions, it is that companies will always choose to keep and promote people with buy-in over resisters, even if the resisters have more brains.

No acquirer in the world wants someone around who is whining and moaning about the good old days. It doesn't make any difference how much they know. The bottom line is: Acquiring managers believe that if you're not for the deal, you're against it. Even if you think you are keeping your objections hidden, the new owners can probably feel your negativity. If that's the case, the decision to stay or leave may not be yours much longer.

Look, change is hard. But in business, it's inevitable. Your best bet is to bid a fond farewell to the past. It's over. Find a way to like your new boss, adopt the values and practices of your new organisation and embrace the future, whatever it holds. If you really cannot accept that the new company is now your company, then you'd better leave. Resisters never get what they want. The old days won't come again. In pining for them, you number your own.