No one likes to deliver bad news. It's especially difficult to
deliver it to one's boss. After all, they shoot messengers, don't
they? But now and then most of us have to tell someone something
we'd rather not. In an organization it's especially critical that
those in charge have accurate, even if uncomfortable, information
to solve a problem. So how do you drop the bomb without
ruffling feathers or inflicting permanent injury on yourself?
Renee Tynan, an assistant professor of management in Notre Dame's
Mendoza College of Business, has studied the problem and offers
the following tips:
• Make sure your motives are pure. Your reason for telling the
unpleasant news must be for the good of the person and the organization.
Vindictiveness is not in order and will only come back to haunt
you.
• Prepare yourself before you deliver the information. A serious
discussion like this is no time to wing it, so don't improvise.
• Try to discern what is most important to the person receiving
the information and what they might find threatening. Use that
information to minimize the person's defensiveness.
• Be concise with relevant facts. An argument buttressed by
facts is less likely to be perceived as a personal attack.
• Assume the outcome of the discussion will be positive. Expectations
often determine another person's reaction.
Follow the tips and who knows? You might receive a promotion
instead of the pink slip you've been fearing ever since that unfortunate
discussion with the boss.
* * *
(April 2004)
