So far, we’ve focused on very business-y business writing: proposals, marketing, guidelines, procedures and other common kinds of business documents. But there’s another kind of business writing: communicating goodwill and delivering bad news.

In this chapter you will learn the most effective ways to deliver even the most awful news, and how to let people down gently without hurting their feelings.

GOODWILL HUNTING

By goodwill we don’t mean the financial value of a business’s customers. We mean positive, co-operative, friendly feelings. That might be the feelings of the people you work with, or the feelings of clients or other important external people. It’s not something you can put a financial value on, but happy staff and happy customers do tend to mean a healthier balance sheet.

You don’t need to put goodwill messages in writing – sometimes an instant message, tweet or phone call is perfectly appropriate – but there’s something about a formal email or handwritten note that amplifies the feel-good factor.

The most effective goodwill messages follow these simple rules:

For example:

Jane —

I just wanted to thank you for all your efforts on the Megacorp plans. I know you put in a lot of hours on this one, and it’s really paid off. Jim called me earlier to say it’s one of the most compelling proposals he’s ever read, and when you think how many pitches he’s seen over the years, that’s high praise indeed. I really appreciate all the work you’ve done on this one.

Or:

Bill —

Thanks again for your time earlier. I’m really excited about the new project and so glad to be part of it.

Or:

Nadia —

I just saw the news of your promotion. Congratulations! It’s about time they recognised your genius. Let’s meet up for coffee soon and you can tell me all about it. So happy for you!

I don’t normally recommend exclamation marks in business writing, but of course they’re fine for informal, friendly communications. Just try not to use too many! They get annoying!!!

For more formal relationships, such as those with clients, stick to more formal language such as:

Tom,

Congratulations on winning the Innovator award. It’s well deserved – it’s such a great product, and I’m really glad to see the team getting the credit they’re due for all that hard work. I’m sure this is the first of many such awards.

It doesn’t take much time to send a goodwill note, but the positive effects last a long time. Even in business, it’s nice to be nice.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS

Sometimes we need to communicate bad news. That might be to reject a proposal, or to announce changes that won’t make people happy. It might be a complaint you’re making, or a response to a complaint about someone in the company.

Let’s look at some examples.

Saying no to someone’s big idea

One of your colleagues has had a brilliant idea for doing things differently. Unfortunately, it would cost much more than it would save, or it would cause more problems than it would solve, or it might not be viable at the moment. Blunt honesty might be the most truthful way to reply, but, as Mary Poppins famously put it, ‘a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’.⁸

The best way to say no is to do so in a positive way. That sounds odd, I know, but the following approach really does work:

For example:

Dave —

Thanks so much for your memo. I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to come up with such an interesting and well-argued proposal.

I agree that hardware is an ongoing problem for us and I particularly liked your suggestion about migrating as much as we can to the cloud. Unfortunately, though, our arrangement with ACME means we are locked in for another year at least, so we can’t really make any big changes to our core systems for the next 12 months. But you’re right, it’s something we should really think about when it’s time to review our supplier arrangements. I’ll keep this handy for when we do that.

Thanks again for all your efforts and please keep the good ideas coming. We’re so lucky to have you on the team!

Regards,

Sue

The objective here is to say no in a way that doesn’t hurt the person’s feelings or discourage them from making more suggestions in the future.

Making a complaint

We have all seen the hilarious (and often fake) complaint letters on the internet featuring heavy sarcasm, liberal use of expletives and the odd purple-faced explosion of fury. So have the people who deal with incoming complaints, so such tactics are ineffective (and if you’re representing an organisation, inappropriate and unprofessional).

Complaints are where the golden rule of business writing – know what you’re trying to achieve – often goes to die: we’ll happily write page after page of forensic detail in barely suppressed fury without actually saying what we want the recipient to do.

As ever, there are some useful questions to ask:

No matter how angry you are, don’t take it out on the reader. In many cases, the person who actually receives your complaint will not have any connection with anything or anyone you’re complaining about. In large organisations, they’re often overworked and on the receiving end of anger from people they have never communicated with before. Not only is that unfair, but it usually backfires too. Nobody puts in extra effort for people who are not nice to them.

Communicating other kinds of bad news

Some kinds of bad news have to be communicated in very specific ways; for example, anything to do with HR matters – disciplinary letters, redundancy notices, rejecting job applicants and so on – is best left to HR. However, sometimes you may have to communicate news that you know is going to upset people.

We can’t take the sting out of bad news, but we can take steps to ensure we don’t add insult to injury. Ideally, really bad news should be delivered in person to small groups, but if that isn’t possible, then there are some crucial steps to follow when you’re delivering bad news in writing.

Take responsibility

We all want to be liked, and of course, being the bearer of bad news tends to affect that. But the recipients won’t warm to you if you try to blame others or present yourself as the real victim of the situation.

Be apologetic

No matter how valid the reasons for a course of action, if it’s going to have a negative effect on people, you need to acknowledge that in the tone of your letter, email or memo.

Get to the point

Don’t beat around the bush. Make it clear what is happening or going to happen.

Use clear language

Euphemisms make the messenger seem dishonest. If something is being cancelled, say cancelled. If it’s being shut down, say it’s being shut down. If the pay rise isn’t going to happen this year, say so.

Accentuate the positive

If there are any positives, mention them – but don’t oversell them or try to convince people that everything’s fantastic if it isn’t.

Explain, but don’t over-explain

Communicate the reason for the decision, but don’t go into excessive detail. For example, if you’re freezing overtime in unexpectedly tough economic conditions because the alternative is to lay off staff, people will understand that. You don’t need to provide five paragraphs of justification.

Make the next steps clear

If the news you’re sharing will have specific effects on the people you’re writing to, make it clear what they are. For example, if a project is cancelled will people be moved to other projects? When? How? By whom? If the recipient wants to talk about this with someone, who do they go to?

Don’t personalise it

You may think it’s a terrible shame or a necessary evil, but your feelings and opinions are not relevant or appropriate here.

Don’t try to lighten the mood

There’s a time and a place for humour. This isn’t it.

Be empathetic

Put yourself in the place of the people who will be reading your message. How is it going to make them feel? Re-read your writing from that perspective. Is there anything here that might rub salt into the wound or cause unnecessary confusion?

Communicating bad news is never easy or enjoyable, but if you follow the steps above you can make sure it isn’t any more unpleasant than it needs to be.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

⁸ From the Walt Disney film Mary Poppins (1964).