Naturally, most companies want to communicate good news with more frequency than bad news, but it's a reality that every day in business is not a perfect day. As such, leaders face having to present tough news.
When you present this news, you need a strategy that simultaneously keeps everyone from going down a deep black hole of despair and keeps everyone from thinking all is well when that is not the full truth. These four practices can make presenting less-than-positive news easier for you and help ensure your listeners will be receptive.
1. Pair a positive with a negative. This is not a matter of administering a teaspoon of sugar to make the medicine go down or hiding broccoli under ooey-gooey cheese sauce. Rather, it is a strategy for letting everyone know that while there are challenges, there are also opportunities. This, according to motivational speaker and self-development author Brian Tracy, is what the best leaders do. Tracy writes, "They see opportunities and possibilities in everything that happens, positive or negative." The more positive your words, the more your listeners feel empowered. Sure, the overall message is based on bad news. However, in my experience, if the majority of the messaging surrounding this news is positive, the audience is better positioned to think and act positively in the midst of challenging times. While giving the bad news, also communicate a benefit, a change or a positive shift that will occur as a result of the news. It's even better if you can pair more than one positive with each negative. That way, you're guiding everyone's thinking toward what could be as opposed to leaving everyone to dwell on the current circumstances.
2. Give it to them straight. Stay away from fluff or cracking jokes in an effort to lessen the severity of the current challenge and what it means for the company. Rhett Power, author of The Entrepreneur's Book of Actions, wrote in a CNBC article that "when delivering bad news, cracking jokes is disrespectful and comes off as rude." Avoid sounding insensitive. Similarly, limit your use of flowery words, empty catchphrases, anecdotes and figurative language, such as metaphors and similes. Those can be seen as a mechanism for purposely distracting everyone from what's really going on. Remember, you have a smart team in front of you. Matthew Randall, executive director of the Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania, insisted in a Fast Company interview that leaders should "refrain from evading the facts or spinning the truth just to ease the outcome." Give them real numbers, real data, real analyses and real information of which they can make sense and actually use. No matter how unpleasant the news, be upfront so that everyone operates with the facts.
3. Own your role in the news. A myriad of factors can bring on bad news for a company. Seldom is it only one department's or one person's fault or actions that cause you to navigate a business obstacle. However, because leaders are tasked with maintaining and supporting a forward-thinking trajectory, they bear some level of culpability when that trajectory takes a left turn. It's not a matter of pointing fingers and ascribing blame. As writer Kim Getty pointed out, it's also not a matter of making this all about you in terms of how bad you feel or how hard it's been on you. It's a matter of communicating that everyone is a member of this company community and also owns a part in the company's successes or failures. Assess what you could have done differently, advice you could have offered, recommendations you could have made and changes you could have implemented that would have altered the narrative. Own your part of the challenge so it's clear that you are just as much a part of the successes as you are the failures and that you are all in this together.
4. Identify a strategy for moving forward. Now that we know what went wrong and have determined the factors involved with the misstep, discuss what you learned and what you (and everyone else) will do next. This, once again, sets everyone's sights on an optimistic path out of the present situation. This helps them understand how they have been individually impacted and what is expected of them moving forward. "If you don't help with this process, people will make up their own stories, usually more negative than the truth," Susan M. Heathfield wrote in The Balance Careers. They must know that you will use this as a teachable moment to lessen the likelihood of history repeating itself. They must know you will not allow this to stop your growth or inhibit the pursuit of your company vision. They must know you are unstoppable. In an interview with Inc., Aaron Meyers, the president and COO of Hammer & Nails Grooming Shop for Guys, said, "Mistakes are part of the journey as a leader." When his concept was rejected on Shark Tank, "others got involved, we were transparent about our concept's shortcomings, and we sampled ideas until we found one that worked."
When there is a failure, leaders determine what needs to be put in place, what's currently in place that needs omitting and what's currently in place that's working. In short, decide what the company will start, stop and continue doing in light of the bad news. Now, everyone has a plan and does not become mired in the present but is instead focused on the future.
