Sharing bad news with your employees is always difficult. You care about the people that depend on you, and it’s never easy letting them down or causing them anxiety. This is true whether it’s direct (they’re getting fired or downsized) or indirect (the company is going through a major change).

Because of this difficulty, many managers struggle. It’s easy to be a standout leader in good times, it’s much more challenging in situations that threaten the team morale and mettle.

In their struggle, these leaders tend to a) communicate bad news in an unclear and non-specific way, making it unclear what the impact is going to be and b) drastically underestimate the negative impact bad news can have (different people process sour news in different ways).

Fortunately, it’s possible to make the best of a bad situation. By taking the time to a) have a plan, b) take ownership, c) connect to the big picture, d) be clear, e) be empathetic, and f) not make things worse, you will have the best chance of minimizing the negative impact and ensuring your team can focus on a way forward.

Have a plan

Any conversation with potentially significant consequences needs to be thought through carefully. What are you going to say, what do you think people’s questions might be, what resources are available to them if they want more information, and what are the immediate next steps? Do you have a good plan for how the message will be communicated? How much needs to be addressed in person versus via email? What resources are people going to need afterward?

Make sure that you’ve involved as many stakeholders as possible in this decision. Even if you’re doing a simple restructure of your department. Have you informed HR? Have you brought your senior leaders up to speed? Give your support team and the employees as much structure as possible to handle any potential blowback. What’s going to happen in the next 24 hours? The next 48 hours? You either need to have all the answers yourself or help prepare the people that will.

Don’t delegate

This is called the “Ned Stark Rule” (by no one but me). When faced with a difficult task, do it yourself, and take ownership. The reason you’re in this role and paid your salary is because you’re expected to do the gut-punching parts of the job and not pass the blame to someone else. Think on the parts of your job that seem the most soul-crushing, those are definitely the parts of your job that you’re never allowed to delegate. These are the “that’s what the money is for!” part of the deal. The only thing worse than mismanaging a bad situation is not having the courage to face the situation in the first place and own up to your part in it.

Connect what’s happening to the larger vision

Leaders put a great deal of thought and consideration into hard and unpopular decisions. Why is it then, that so many of us do such a terrible job of connecting these challenging situations to a larger vision for our employees?

Your job is to ensure that your employees can see how these hard decisions are connected to a larger story and vision.

Are you laying off employees? Why? What is the company hoping to accomplish in the next 1-2 years as a result of this layoff?

If you don’t paint a clear picture for your employees or team, they are going to paint their own picture. You need to give them something they can understand and absorb, and you need to connect it to the larger story you’ve been trying to tell. The largest reason that negative news undermines morale in companies is because employees perceive that the narrative has changed.

Be sure the message is clear

Are people’s titles going to change? Is the compensation or benefit structure going to change? Go out of your way to be as detailed and specific as possible. Most people try to soften the blow by using non-specific language that confuses what’s being said. The more people you’re telling the harder you’ll have to work to ensure everyone understands. You’ll have to state it, restate it, and then restate it again.

Consider the way the information is going to be absorbed. If the news is going to be really shocking, then you’re going to want to make sure it’s clearly written down. Send a memo, have it posted internally, etc. People process things differently, so they’ll need to have multiple opportunities to process the information.

Show empathy

Imagine yourself as the person receiving bad news. All of us have been there at one time or another, so draw on that experience. What would you want to know if you were the person listening to this? What immediate questions would you want answered or points clarified?

This is your time to speak from a place of authenticity and credibility. Show yourself as someone that can understand what people might be feeling or thinking, even if it seems like cold comfort. Acknowledge that people are feeling anxious, or frustrated, or mad. Own that feeling in your communications and follow-up conversations.

Take the time to listen to the feedback that you receive. Don’t shut yourself off to people’s reactions. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and decency, especially in challenging times. I can’t promise this will lessen the barbs coming back at your, but it’ll definitely dull their edges.

Don’t make things worse

Your job is to clearly communicate news and information, not open up a dialogue on the philosophical merits of what might be happening. As leaders, we often struggle with wanting to be popular and well-liked, even when we’re making unpopular decisions. In turn, we tend to get overly defensive at the pushback we receive.

Look, sometimes we have to do hard things. It sucks. People understand, but it doesn’t mean they have to like it. It’s natural for people to want to challenge these decisions. Your job is not to get dragged into a debate.

“I understand that you’re upset, I’m upset too and I hate that this is happening. This decision was deeply considered, discussed, and thought-through. If you want me to listen to your concerns, I’m willing to do that, but I’m not going to debate you on the merits.”

Avoid attacking employees for challenging you. It’s your most passionate employees who are going to be hurt the deepest by changes they don’t/can’t understand. And these same people are going to be the ones who want to push you on it. Let them speak their minds, show them respect, and move on.

Here’s the hard truth, even if you handle a truly bad situation in the best possible way, you’re still going to lose some credibility, trust, and political capital. That’s the nature of challenging situations. Sometimes winning looks like limiting how much you’re losing.

But that’s life! As a leader, your job is to play the long game and not allow yourself to be defined by the few sour situations. Layoffs, restructures, firings, new strategies, pivots, etc. are small contributions to a larger vision, and you need to treat them as such. And sometimes that’s the best you can hope for.

Good luck out there.

-Patrick

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