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Amy Gallo
March 30, 2015
Delivering bad news is tough. It s even harder when you don t agree with the
message or decision you re communicating. Maybe you have to tell your star
performer that HR turned down her request for a raise or to inform your team
that the company doesn t want them working from home any longer. Should you toe
the line and act like you agree with the decision or new policy? Or should you
break ranks and explain how upset you are too?
What the Experts Say
In a managerial role, it s natural to feel ambivalence when delivering
disappointing news, says Joshua Margolis, a professor of business
administration at Harvard Business School. This is because you always have two
different parties interests at heart that of your employees and that of
upper management. Talent management expert and humanresources.about.com writer
Susan Heathfield agrees: As a manager, you walk a fine line between being a
company advocate and an employee advocate. Reconciling the two is no easy task
and you often feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Here s how to
navigate the situation.
Prepare for the conversation
Be sure to have all your ducks in a row before talking with your employees.
Specifically, you need to know how the decision was made, who was consulted,
what other possibilities were discussed, and the rationale behind the final
outcome. The manager should take as much time as necessary so that she is
confident in her own understanding of the answers, says Heathfield. And, if
you aren t sure, go back to your boss, HR, or whomever made the decision to ask
these questions again. Margolis agrees: If you think all concerns weren t
heard, you should seek further explanation and, if warranted, appeal the
decision before conveying anything to your team.
Be direct and avoid mixed messages
One of the biggest factors in whether employees will listen to and accept bad
news is how it s delivered. Watch your body language. Be sure that your
nonverbal cues aren t telegraphing something different than what you re saying,
warns Heathfield. Slumping your shoulders, avoiding eye contact, or fidgeting
will send the wrong message. Even if this is an obvious setback for everyone,
you need to confidently convey the information and leave no room for
interpretation. Consider rehearsing what you re going to say ahead of time. Go
to a buddy a fellow manager who can give you feedback on how you re
appearing, she says.
Be thoughtful and caring but don t sugar coat the news. That makes it more
difficult for people to digest. Instead laser-focus on the decision and
explain why it s the final call, says Heathfield. For example, if you need to
explain to your team that the company has banned a particular software they ve
been using, you might say: We ve made a decision. You may not use this software
going forward. Our IT department determined that it s a threat to our security
system.
Explain how the decision was made
Studies show that people are willing to accept an unfavorable outcome if they
believe the decision-making process was sound. This is often called procedural
fairness. You might say to your employees, for example: Here s the process
that was followed, the people we spoke with, and where things came out.
Heathfield and Margolis agree that sharing your viewpoint on the decision is
not necessary, and can in fact cause harm. Managers have a great deal of
influence on employees. If they give them the ammunition of not even my boss
believes this is right it can spark a lot of chaos, turmoil, and unhappiness,
says Heathfield. However, Margolis says, if you feel you need to acknowledge
your disappointment in order to maintain credibility with the individual or
team, you might add something like: It s not ideally where we wanted it to land
but they followed these steps.
If you disagreed with the process, be sure to share your misgivings with the
higher-ups, but don t do it with your people. You won t do anyone any favors
by telling your team that you think the process was rigged, Margolis explains.
Instead, say: This is how we made the decision this time but we re going to
look into how these decisions are made going forward.
Allow for venting, not debate
Once you ve delivered the news and explained the decision-making process, ask
the individual or group for a reaction. You have to listen to their concerns,
says Margolis, even if you re uncomfortable. It s part of your role as a
manager to absorb some of that emotion, whether it s anger, surprise, or
something else. Heathfield points out that this is when most managers are
quick to align with the team and say, I think this is a bad decision, too.
But resist that impulse. The one thing you don t want to do is get into a
debate about the merits of [a] decision that has already been made, Margolis
says. This is not a time to revisit it, Heathfield agrees.
Focus on the future
Once you ve heard them out, take a break this may be a few minutes or a few
days and let people process the information. Then help the team or individual
move forward. Margolis suggests enlisting them in the problem-solving by saying
something like: Now how do we make this best work given the concerns you have?
Be sure to indicate that you are a partner in doing whatever comes next. If
people are disappointed, they ll need your support.
Putting it all together
To give you a sense of what this all sounds like, consider the following
example. If you have to tell a direct report that he didn t get the promotion
he was hoping for you can say something like: We re unable to give you the
promotion (be direct). HR says that in order to be at a director level you need
to have responsibility for a larger scope of the business (explain the
rationale). It s not necessarily how I d approach it, but I understand why as
an organization we do it that way (express procedural fairness). What questions
do you have for me? How are you feeling? (Allow for venting). Now let s look at
what you can do to get that promotion next year or the following one (focus on
the future).
Principles to Remember
Do:
Understand why the decision was made before sharing the news
Prepare and rehearse what you re going to say
Explain the rationale and the process for making the decision
Don t:
Sugarcoat the news be clear and direct
Let your body language belie your words
Allow people to debate the merits of the decision focus on moving forward
Case study #1: Explain the process and stand by the decision
Mark Costa s (not his real name) team of IT professionals had put a lot of work
into researching three software options their company might use to monitor
employee s online activities. They analyzed the costs and benefits for each one
and strongly recommended the software that cost the most upfront but would
yield the most long-term benefits, expanding easily as the company grew. But
when management reviewed the team s work, they decided to instead go with the
cheapest option. Mark didn t agree but he understood the reasoning: The
recommended package was deemed too expensive and investing in it would result
in a short-term risk to the cash position. He was therefore happy to explain
the rationale and support the process, he says.
He walked the group through the logic of the decision and met one-on-one with
members who were still unhappy with the decision, always keeping his personal
opinion to himself. I made it clear that there were pros and cons but there
was no point in saying anything else as it would have demotivated the team, he
explains. To be honest, as a manager, I sometimes have to take one for the
people above me. He also didn t share some of the details he d been privy to,
like the concern about the company s cash flow. He didn t want to worry his
employees, especially about something they had no control over.
The team took it well. They were disappointed that they had spent so much time
coming up with the recommendation, but Mark focused them on their other work.
At the end of the day, there were bigger issues to address, he says.
Case study #2: Focus on what you can do to help the person
As a regional HR director for a global company, Jihad Gafour, was responsible
for onboarding a new project director to the Middle East office. The new hire,
Sulayman (not his real name), had been recruited from outside the country and
had quit his job to join Jihad s firm, moving his wife and family with him. But
only a few weeks after his start date, upper management began to complain about
Sulayman s performance and to question his trustworthiness.
Soon, the CEO asked Jihad to fire the new hire. Jihad worried that Sulayman was
being judged unfairly since he was an outsider challenging the company s status
quo and told the CEO that, in his opinion, this was an unjustified termination.
But the CEO would not reverse his decision, so Jihad set about preparing for
the conversation with Sulayman. I gathered a list of recruitment managers and
consultants I thought would help him, his wife, and kids, he says. Then,
although almost all of his previous communication with the man had been over
the phone, he arranged a face-to-face meeting. He cut right to the chase. He
said, As per the labor law and the contract between you and the company,
senior management has decided to terminate the employment contract with
immediate effect.
Despite his repeated attempts to understand the reasons behind the firing,
Jihad felt he couldn t explain the rationale so he told Sulayman that he would
be happy to set up a meeting with the CEO. Jihad offered his list of contacts,
and closed the conversation by offering his help, saying, Let me know if you
need any other services from HR or from me personally. Here is my number.
Sulayman shed tears during the meeting but came away understanding that the
decision was final. He did request the meeting with the CEO and Jihad succeeded
in getting the two together, despite some initial resistance from the boss.
Sulayman found another position soon after, and several months later, Jihad
also left the company. They ve both stayed in touch.
Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review. Follow her on
Twitter at @amyegallo.