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How to Deliver Bad News to Your Employees

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.