Delivering Bad News: 4 Tips to Make Things Go Smoother
As a supervisor or leader, regardless of your organizational level, there is no doubt that you are often called upon to give others bad news.
Telling someone negative information in the workplace can range from having to turn down simple requests to informing people of serious, life-changing actions, like layoffs or termination.
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
Here are 4 reminders on how to effectively communicate negative information:
1: Schedule the meeting and give the bad news as soon as possible
Look, people often already know that bad news is coming, and are already in a state of heightened anxiety. Unnecessarily avoiding or delaying these meetings significantly increases this anxiety and sets both you and the other person up for interpersonal failure. Further delays also give time for the workplace negative rumor mill to start, which can just make an unpleasant situation worse.
Key Takeaway: When a decision is made, move forward quickly and get the job done.
2: Don’t beat around the bush
Take a lesson from medical doctors who routinely have to deliver the worst messages imaginable – informing people of life-threatening diagnoses or that a loved one has died. Doctors are taught two principles about this skill in medical school:
Do not delay giving the information with small-talk.
Avoid technical jargon or understating the problem. Instead, give simple clear factual statements with no delay.
Apply these professional principles whenever you communicate negative information in the workplace.
3: Apologize when it is sincere
Often leaders and supervisors feel that they have to be completely robotic when giving people bad news. Yet this way of communicating often comes across as unfeeling and insincere. I know that it’s sometimes hard to empathize in these situations, as the person may have caused you many problems and negative feelings in the past, but effective leaders never enjoy causing pain to another person.
Key Takeaway: Give a very brief, sincere apology for being the bearer of bad news. There is rarely a downside to this method.
4: When possible, let them choose what they have to lose
Sometimes bad news comes with options. For example, you need to tell a report that there will be big changes in their position and that they will lose significant flexibility in the new role. In the course of this discussion, the report says, “I’ll do whatever you need. But please let me keep my current work hours, because I have important personal obligations (e.g., picking up children; providing care to parents) that I just cannot change?”
When you can, always accommodate these critical requests and you will find much greater acceptance of workplace changes and willingness to tolerate other negative information
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