29

How to Present Bad News

“Never awaken me when you have good news to announce, because with good news nothing presses. But when you have bad news, arouse me immediately, for, then there is not an instant to be lost.”

–Napoleon Bonaparte

Let’s face it. Bad things do happen from time to time and sometimes, the unpleasant task of delivering the bad news will fall upon us. Along with it comes certain responsibilities and expectations. For a start, we will be required to be thoughtful and considerate of the mental state of the person about to receive the bad news. Then, we will have to have the tact and the guts to break the bad news itself. Next, we are expected to deal with the recipient’s reaction with poignancy and understanding. And finally, we are also supposed to act as psychological counsellors and assuage his grief and help him in the healing process—and we are supposed to do all this while trying to come to terms with the bad news ourselves. It is a difficult mission even for angels.

Our workplace probably generates the most number of bad news per capita. It is not surprising, considering that it is a beehive of activities and some of those activities are high-risk, with considerable exposure to internal and external factors that we have no control over. In fact, in difficult times, a ton of bad news will spew out of our organization—and a lot of it will understandably be about its own poor financial health and business performance.

29.1 Bad News at Work

Bad news at work comes in many, many flavours. (See Box 29.1 for some examples.) But in terms of dissemination, some bad news travel from the bosses to the junior staff top down and some others are delivered from bottom up, from the lower rank to the boss. Occasionally it is also transmitted laterally, colleague to colleague or business to business. Some bad news is localized and affects only a few workers in the office, whereas some others can have wide ramifications across the entire enterprise. Sometimes bad news will be delivered to a large group all at once and at some other times it is disseminated to a single person. Big groups have the advantage of eliciting a diversity of reactions and therefore, help bring out the full magnitude of the news. On the other hand, the intimacy and clarity of one-on-one communication can help analyse the situation in depth. Ofcourse, in spite of these ‘advantages’, it is still tricky and difficult to convey bad news, irrespective of the group size.

If you think about it, conveying bad news is a skill too, although, perhaps, we won’t highlight it in our resumé or want to be known around the office as the most skillful bad-news messenger. This skill is like that thick winter jacket that you have put away in the corner of your wardrobe, to be used only occasionally—but, whenever you need it, it should still serve you admirably. This chapter will take you through some essential points about delivering bad news, so that you can be more careful and effective the next time—or at a minimum, not bungle an already delicate operation. We will, of course, limit our discussion to just the communication of bad news and not go into what kind of follow-up actions should be taken in response. (This is covered in Chapter 11 on ‘When Things Go Wrong At Workplace’.)

29.2 Some Commonsense Points About Delivering Bad News

Whether you are transmitting the bad news top down, bottom up or laterally, there are some common sense observations or practices about disseminating bad news.

Choose an appropriate time and a forum: Although emergency news will have to be told right away, you may want to choose the right place and the right time to reveal the bad news. The place you select should afford you enough privacy and the time you schedule should have enough leeway for their reaction and for possible follow-up. A project meeting or a specially called meeting (‘can we all get together in my office at 3.00 PM’?) can serve as the right forum. Don’t give bad news in a ‘by the way’ kind of fashion. And never, never convey it through cell phone, SMS messages, by shouting across the hallway or as you pull away in your car in the parking lot.

Being brutally honest vs wrapping it in sheets: Should we be brutally frank and dish it out straight or should we slow down and temper it with sensitive stuff so that it goes down better? It depends entirely on who is at the receiving end. Large groups lend themselves to the open, no-nonsense approach. With single individuals, a hemming and hawing approach works better. The best way, of course, is a hybrid approach, where you alternate between being super-candid and super-sensitive.

Don’t give it in bits and pieces: Don’t tease your recipients with the bad news, especially when they are too impatient to hear it. Don’t drag it out or build unnecessary suspense. Don’t give it in installments or omit key details. When you are done with delivering the bad news, clearly indicate to them that that was all the information you had. Forgetting a piece here and a piece there is understandable, but never deliberately hold back aspects of the bad news—either because they were too terrible or because it might aggravate the receivers some more. Likewise, don’t have several versions for several people. Be consistent and true to the facts.

Give the bad news before they find out: The most fundamental tenet about giving bad news is give it early and don’t procrastinate till the last minute! It is a human tendency to postpone telling the bad news and sometimes people even try to hide it. (‘I was anyway going to tell you,’ is a pretty lame statement.) If you are the point man to deliver the news and you didn’t divulge it in time, your credibility and people’s trust in you will be seriously damaged, once they find out about it. Remember that however much you try to hide the news, most workplaces have mechanisms to uncover such cover-ups and the unpleasant truth will emerge sooner or later.

Don’t analyse, speculate or sell the news while still delivering it: Don’t mix the delivery of bad news with bad news analysis. When you are in the delivery mode, stick only to that and come out with all the facts and details. Don’t speculate or guess why or who might have caused it or who stands to benefit from it and so on. Maintain an element of impartiality and a TV newsreader kind of detachment. Don’t think aloud or show your biases prematurely. Time for analysis will come later, after the details of the news are spelt out.

Don’t have a neutralizing mentality: There is no way to gift-wrap bad news. So don’t rush to find a silver lining in the whole thing, just because you feel sorry for the recipients. We are so used to rationalizing and seeing the good in everything that sometimes we become unrealistic. In fact, even if there is some incidental good news, that is relatively unimportant compared to the magnitude of the bad news. Also, don’t wait for some offsetting good news to occur before delivering the bad news in hand.

Estimate the relative badness of the news: If you have worked in your organization for a while, it is likely that you have seen every kind of bad news that there is and you can pretty much categorize most bad news along a Richter Scale of ‘badness’. This should help you come up with suitable ways of presenting various kinds of bad news. You probably even have precedence and established protocol on some of them already.

Look also for what other companies do under similar circumstances. However, remember that no matter how many times a bad event occurred previously, it still does not lessen the gravity of the situation. Nor should it desensitize you to the plight of the affected.

Handle emotions carefully: Remember that you too will be affected by the bad news So, first and foremost, try to control your emotions and calm down. Don’t present the news if you are distraught yourself.

You will have to be even more careful about your recipients’ emotional state as you break the news. Work toward reducing panic reaction among them. Don’t whip up their fears or play on their passions. On the other extreme, don’t overreact to the way they react or lecture them about controlling themselves or about time healing everything. Sympathize with them and tell them that you too, are with them. Don’t be a ‘bad-news monger’, spreading it to anyone and everyone, planting prophecies of gloom and doom everywhere.

It happens all the time: Since we know that bad news can occur every once in a while, it makes sense to prepare ourselves and others in anticipation of such possibilities. Lower others’ expectations ahead of time, especially if you see cracks appearing in your project. When you sign up for difficult activities with unrealistic expectations, temper others’ enthusiasm right then and feed them the mantra of ‘cautious optimism’. This is in line with what we have seen in Chapter 8 on Expectation Management and the equation ‘satisfaction=performance–expectations’. If you are the boss, alert your workers to poor economy or difficult competitive environment well in advance, so that they see the trend. But, when the bad news does occur, don’t trivialize it or gloss over it, ‘because such things happen’. Encourage them wherever possible to get a perspective on the whole thing, although under no circumstances should you try to dictate how they should react to the news.

29.3 Top Down Communication of Bad News

Being the big boss, you get to drop such deadly bombshells (as exemplified in Snapshot 29.1) once in a while and given the nature of the boss–employee relationship, they will have no choice but to swallow hard and take it on the chin. Still, you can turn such a difficult event into a great communication exercise to rally your employees—or what is left of them. Let us see how.

Give the speech of your life: Even if you cannot do Nehru’s ‘Freedom at Midnight’ kind of speech, rouse them with a well-prepared and well-delivered speech that touches their heartstrings. Let all your employees know that you are working hard for them and that you are looking out for them in such difficult times. Explain to them why so many workers are being laid off and what the other alternatives were that you considered. Detail the circumstances leading up to this tough decision. Bring all your managerial and public speaking acumen to the forefront. Admit that you yourself don’t know the answers to some of the questions and that the decision is definitely an unfortunate one. Realize that the atmosphere will be super-charged and so, be ready to face the audience’s ire (although most of them would have probably internalized their anger). Focus on the challenges of tomorrow and inspire your troops to join you on the march forward.

While delivering the speech, don’t ramble on, don’t sermonize and above all, be sensitive. Don’t skirt the main issue or give a huge build-up. Don’t confuse them with unrelated details. Sound apologetic, even if it is not your fault. Don’t convolute your bad news with jargon—job loss by any name is job loss, even if you choose to call it the ‘re-equilibrization’ process. Don’t put blame on a particular person or organization. And don’t be quick to put a spin on it.

Keep extra time for questions: End the ‘bad news’ speech quickly enough, but follow it with an elaborate question and answer session to give out more details. This will give the audience a sense of participation rather than making them feel like just passive spectators. Encourage them to ask questions and touch upon related topics when you answer their questions. Have all the other managers around and in case you need it, ask the relevant manager to come up to the front and fill the gaps in knowledge.

Give them time to react: Like a doctor breaking bad news to the patient, pause and solicit their response at every step of your disclosure. Give out a lot of facts and data. Make sure there are no loose ends in terms of topics to cover. Some of the workers may be too shy or too shell-shocked to ask any questions and so, get ready to answer their questions off-line. Have other managers respond to questions as well. Be there longer than you are needed. Try to offer all help and be genuine.

Have follow-up meetings: As people try to come to terms with bad news, they will have different sets of questions at different points of time. Hence it is essential to have follow-up meetings, provide an opportunity for them to aok these questions and get them clarified. Be patient, as they may take their own time to digest the news.

Let us look at another example.

What you told Javed in Snapshot 29.2 was bad news alright. He is going to react negatively and might even lose some of his enthusiasm for work. But you could have handled it better—by lowering his high expectation level (especially if the business climate is bad) or by explaining clearly how the promotion process works. You can point out that although he did not get the promotion per se, he did reap heavy rewards for his hard work, especially relative to the others in the group. In this way, you could motivate him back to his usual high enthusiasm.

29.4 Telling the Boss the Bad News

If you are an entry-level professional, you may be dealing with such situations, as shown in Snapshot 29.3, routinely. The bad news you bring to the boss will typically be a transgression or what is known in management lingo as an ‘operations level problem’. The good news about your bad news is that your foul up is going to be limited in scope and will affect only a few associated activities. Still, bosses will come unglued when they hear about your lapse. You must remember that they take a lot of risks and count on things running smoothly. Let us look at some aspects of telling boss the bad news.

The most common bad news for the boss: By far, the biggest category of bad news an employee reports to his immediate boss, is his defaulting on some assignment, such as missing a deadline or not doing what he was supposed to do or not being successful in what he attempted. The best approach is to give it to him straight, take the heat and get right back to working on minimizing the fallout. Don’t have that ‘why are you making such a fuss about a minor thing?’ or that ‘look, I was being so honest. Why are you still giving me hell?’ kind of attitude.

Granted, this might have happened in spite of your trying hard and putting in sincere efforts. But that still cannot absolve you. Prior to your ‘miss’, you should have taken sufficient precautions about warning him of delays or difficulties in the project.

When Murphy strikes: The next category of bad news that upsets the boss is the one where those unusual events and freak accidents that were never supposed to happen, happen. A server crash right in the middle of an important data transfer that set you back by three days. Such events are considered examples of Murphy’s Law, which goes (paraphrased) ‘If anything can go wrong, it will’. But your boss will not be so light-hearted or cool when you break the news and Murphy will be the last thing on his mind. He will have a thousand questions about the freak incident and will try to pin the blame on someone or something. He will try to even shoot you, the messenger. But, empathize with him and work with the recovery team in whatever capacity you can. A few days later, give him your inputs on ways to prevent a recurrence of the situation in the future.

Set the stage: One of the tactics often suggested is that you should not just convey the bad news, but also tell the boss ways of mitigating it or working around it. Be a part of the solution. You should have initiated some effective problem-solving activities even before you walked into his office. (of course, if you haven’t thought about it yet, don’t start cooking up ad hoc plans between his yells.) List them in the order of the most practical to the most impossible. Accept ownership of these recovery efforts. The boss may have some suggestions, but he is not going to solve the problem for you right then and there. Also, let him not get the impression that you were always expecting the bad news and were working on Plan B right from day one. (‘I knew the client would not be available today. That’s why I never even prepared my slide show for him.’)

Remember that managers will not be very quick to shift focus from the bad news to the ‘what next’ spin. Let him take his own time. Don’t make light of the bad news or be in a hurry to put it behind you just because it is unpleasant to dwell on it. At the appropriate time in the session, try to pinpoint the root cause and be accurate about it. Note, however, that he will see through any lame attempts to shift the blame on a third party.

Recruit help and find strength in numbers: Maybe your bad news is a result of a systemic problem or event that also affected several other people around you. Perhaps everyone in your group is waiting for the same code from the development group. In such a case, it makes sense for several of you to go as a group and break the bad news to the boss. (Just make sure that this does not appear to be a mob attack!) This way, no one person will be blamed for breaking the bad news. Also, different people in the delegation can highlight different aspects of the bad news. Such powerful imploring might prompt the boss to escalate the matter to the higher-ups and request them to take care of the problem. But remember that if you have a weak case, approaching the boss in a group will not get you out of the situation.

Remember there can be long-term consequences: You might not think much about missing a deadline here or defaulting on a deliverable there. But, it is not just a short-term problem per se. Every time such a thing happens, your boss is making a note of it and if you are a repeat offender, there may be a price to pay at the end of the year, when it is time for the annual performance appraisal. Don’t for a minute assume that he will quickly accept your explanation and move on as if nothing happened. His memory for your lapses is stronger than yours.

29.5 In Summary

In ancient Greece, in the days leading up to the War of Marathon, a warrior-runner named Phidippides had to run from Athens to Sparta and back (about 200 km each way, through a tortuous mountain terrain) to convey bad news about an imminent Persian invasion. Today, twenty five centuries later, it hasn’t become any easier to dispense bad news. Presenting bad news is a frustratingly difficult task. For, right at the exact moment you are breaking the bad news, it may feel like the lights are going out in somebody’s life (and that somebody can even be you). It is likely that with the passage of time, the bad news will play itself out and the affected people will move on. But if you are the one who doled out the news, you want to be remembered—if at all—as a person who handled the whole thing well, with your rock-solid emotional maturity, complete understanding of the bad news and above all, as the one possessing the intelligence to anticipate the recipients’ reaction to the unfortunate situation.

Here is a quick summary of key points to remember, should you ever be put in the unfortunate situation of having to break bad news.

• Don’t delay in conveying the bad news.
• Remember, there is a time and a place for conveying the bad news. Choose them appropriately.
• Give it completely, all at once. Don’t give it in fragments.
• Use simple words and a straightforward approach to convey the bad news, don’t sugarcoat, dilly-dally, beat around the bush or make it look unimportant. At the same time don’t blow it out of proportion to evoke unnecessary panic.
• Give the recipients some time to digest the bad news before proceeding to analyse or discuss it.
• Be sensitive to the persons who are affected by the bad news.
• If you are the manager dishing out bad news to your employees, have follow-up meetings to discuss the consequences and to address their concerns.
• If you are an employee presenting bad news to your boss, set the stage and prepare him for the news as much as possible and then present him with the news—don’t just sneak it in or worse still, don’t try to cover it up.

 

Fig. 29.1