There’s a management lesson in Toyota Motor Corp.’s public relations mess. No one from the company stepped up in the early days of the crisis and owned the problem.

Yes, Akio Toyoda (the company’s president and CEO) finally held a press conference today saying what everyone expected him to say. But it’s too little, too late.

And Shinichi Sasaki, Toyota’s executive vice president, made things worse by insisting the company would go back to one of its basic principles, “genchi genbutsu” (or “go and see for yourself”). Sounds great, but it raises a worrisome question: Just what were the senior execs doing until now? Relying on alarmist media reports and reacting to the jawboning of Ray LaHood, the U.S. Transportation Secretary?

As a manager, you should always go and see for yourself what the heck is happening on your watch. Secondhand sources of information cannot and should not supplant firsthand observation and empirical data.

Here are three takeaways from Toyota’s turmoil:

1. If there’s a problem in your unit, take responsibility for solving it. Running toward the fire and attempting to put it out (rather than cowering a few blocks away) boosts your credibility with key constituencies.

2. Don’t accept others’ characterizations of the problem at face value. Get your hands dirty and dig around. Determine for yourself exactly what’s going on and define the situation accurately based on hard evidence, not conjecture.

3. Tie your apologies to action. Just saying (as Akio Toyoda said), “I will do my best” isn’t sufficient. Present a numbered list of concrete steps you will take so that listeners can hold you accountable for follow through. I realize that takes some guts, but it’s better than spouting platitudes and expecting to mollify people as a result.

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Tags: leadership