Delivering Bad News to Staff – Make Difficult Conversations Easier
Delivering bad news to staff is definitely one of the hardest jobs of being a manager. There is nothing nice about delivering bad news to employees and team members. It sucks, yet it is part of the job. Businesses have ups and downs, so you will have to deliver bad news multiple times during your management career.
There are tried and test steps to make difficult conversations easier – for the recipient and yourself. Minimising the anger, upset and damage to relationships from delivering bad news at work is very valuable to you and to the business. Do a good job and team members are much less likely to leave, are likely to remain more motivated and produce higher team performance AND appreciate you a lot more.
Make your life at work a lot easier by doing the best you job you can when delivering bad news to your team at work.
Delivering Bad News to Staff – Make Difficult Conversations Easier
- How to deliver bad news to team members to minimise the negative impact
- Provide the context in an honest and straight forward way
- Allow venting of emotions but minimise debate
- Get the team focused on the future
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How to deliver bad news to team members to minimise the negative impact
No one likes delivering bad news. A lot of the research on how best to give bad news comes from the medical profession. The four most important factors in order are:
- The news-giver’s attitude
- The clarity of the message
- Privacy
- The person’s ability to answer questions
Your attitude and communication skills have an enormous impact on how your messages will be received.
Get Straight To The Point
When you are delivering bad news to employees get straight to the point. Don’t spend time
- Engaging in small talk
- Asking how they are or
- Building yourself up to give them the bad news.
Instead, announce that you are delivering bad news. Give them literally a second or two to prepare themselves and then give them the bad news. For example:
- I have some bad news to share … you are being made redundant, effective from Friday. I am very sorry about this situation.
- I am sharing some bad news …. 10% of the workforce, including managers, will be made redundant in the next 4 weeks. Unfortunately the company needs to cut its costs because of the downturn in sales. I am very sorry this is happening.
When prepared, people are surprising resilient. Prepare them for the bad news, pause for a second or two and then give them the bad news.
Show your emotions and sympathise with those receiving the news. Show your empathy and compassion in your tone of voice and in your body language.
It is very important that your non-verbal communication mirrors the words you are using. When verbal and non-verbal communication are aligned, there is no confusion. Be ready for a lot of emotion in response. Remember, their reactions are about the situation not about you personally. Stay empathetic, honest and in control of your own emotions.
2. When deliver bad news to staff Provide the context in an honest and straight forward way
Next explain the context or the process of actions leading up to the decision. Be honest and tell the truth. People receiving bad news appreciate a straight talking person who tells the truth with compassion. If there are things that you can’t reveal, say you are unable to share them. Be honest and straightforward while explaining the situation that has led to the bad news.
For example:
“As we have been sharing with you over the last 6 months, the company has continued to make losses. We have undertaken several cost cutting initiatives, which many of you have been involved with. We have now reached the point where cutting staff costs is the only practical option left. All other options have been exhausted. The decision was taken this morning and the leadership wanted you to know as soon as possible to reduce the uncertainty that everyone is feeling.”
Note the inclusive language, using a lot of “we” to emphasise that everyone is in it together. Provide the context in an honest and straightforward way.
3. when delivering bad news to staff allow venting of emotions but minimise debate
Allow a lot of time for questions and answer the questions raised in an empathetic and honest way. Be straightforward and as factual as possible in your answers. Try to avoid giving opinions where possible.
Allow the staff members to vent their emotions, their frustration, their anger and their anxiety about the future. Expect difficult questions and comments. Be prepared emotionally to handle them calmly, with sympathy while remaining honest and straightforward.
In these situations, with emotions running high, avoid siding with or aligning yourself with the staff’s position or situation. Don’t say things like “I think this is a bad decision too”. Stay neutral, sympathise but don’t join them.
Stop any debate starting on the merits of decisions already made. Remind the staff that the decision has been taken and talking about it will not change that decision. Help staff to mentally move on to dealing with the situation.
Provide information and what reassurance you can.
4. after delivering bad news to staff, get the team focused on the future
Give the staff time to process the bad news and what it means for them, and then focus the staff on the future.
The bad news you have communicated is almost guaranteed to give rise to additional problems that needs solving. For instance, who is going to do XYZ’s work when they leave? Ask the team members to be part of the solution building process. This helps them focus on the future and move forward.
If you are able, create and communicate a vision of the future. Use straightforward everyday language to explain where you see the team going and what the future might look like. This helps provide direction and hope for the future.
The worst thing at this point is for there not to be a plan and for everything to be disorganised. This increases the uncertainty.
Instead, do your best to create as much certainty as possible by giving clear direction, by having a clear sensible and practical plan and communicating this with the team.
Plan as many actions to create as much certainty as possible about the future.
in summary
Delivering bad news to staff is really unpleasant. It can be really tough when you are responsible for looking after them and when you have been working with them for a period of time. Delivering bad news carefully, professionally and empathetically is really important to maintain team motivation and team performance and make the best out of a bad situation.
As a reminder, when delivering bad news to staff:
- How to deliver bad news to team members to minimise the negative impact
- Provide the context in an honest and straight forward way
- Allow venting of emotions but minimise debate
- Get the team focused on the future
If you have any questions on “Delivering Bad News To Staff – Make Difficult Conversations Easier”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.