What if you had to give bad news to your employees and you didn’t know where to start?
Most supervisors wish they only had good news to share with their workers. In reality, though, bad things will happen that are often out of your control. While you aren’t responsible for those things happening, you are responsible for letting employees know.
How can you break the bad news in a dignified manner? How can you bring the team together during this time instead of pushing them apart? Keep reading to find out!
Do Your Homework Ahead of Time
No matter what kind of bad news you are delivering, your employees are going to have many questions. To properly answer those questions, you are going to need to do your homework ahead of time.
For example, you need to know how and why certain decisions were made, who was consulted about the decision, and why the decision was finalized. This doesn’t mean you should pass the blame to others, of course. If you don’t have the answers to these questions before breaking the bad news, you won’t be able to properly answer employee questions. If you seem uncertain, it can make workers even more nervous during a stressful time.
Be Honest When Breaking Bad News
When you have to deliver bad news, you may be tempted to try to sugarcoat or downplay things. As difficult as it can be, though, it’s important for you to be honest before anything else.
For example, if your team is getting downsized, you need to let them know directly. If a current or former employee died over the weekend, you need to be clear and up front about it.
It’s important to have empathy and compassion (more on this later) so you don’t sound too harsh. If employees think you are lying to them or misleading them when you try to sugarcoat things, it can cause much more damage to team coherence and loyalty than breaking the bad news directly.
Privacy Is Needed for Individual Conversations
How you break the bad news is very important. For example, if the news affects the entire team, you need to speak to the entire team. If it only concerns a single individual, then you need to speak to that person in private.
The bad news is usually bad enough on its own. However, if you break bad news to a single person in front of the entire team, it can make things more awkward and embarrassing for that person. They may even become paranoid that others are now talking about them behind their back!
When you break bad news one on one, it can make things a lot easier for both of you. It can also make it easier for you to show compassion during a trying time while maintaining a winning culture at work.
Show Compassion When Bad News Happens
It’s important to break bad news with both empathy and compassion. To do this, imagine you are breaking this news to a close friend or family member rather than one of your employees.
Depending on the news, your employees may feel very hurt or scared. While it’s important to be open and honest about the news, it’s also important to let them know you are sympathetic to how this news affects them.
If nothing else, demonstrating compassion shows that you aren’t just being a corporate mouthpiece for bad news. Instead, it shows your team you view them as people first and workers second, which is important for maintaining camaraderie.
The Right Body Language Counts When Breaking Bad News
When you have to break bad news to employees, the old phrase is true: It’s not always what you say, but how you say it. In this case, that means carefully monitoring your body language while you deliver the news.
When breaking the news, you need to stand up straight, look people in the eye, and appear confident. If you slump your shoulders, avoid eye contact, or fidget, it can send the wrong message.
Worst case, workers might think you are lying to them because your body is telling a different story than your words. Always keep your physical composure when breaking bad news!
Let Your Employees Learn the Right Level of Information
One of the hardest parts of breaking bad news to employees is figuring out how much to tell them. If you don’t give them enough information, you will come across as evasive. If you tell them too much (going too far discussing the research and data behind a company decision, for example), it can overwhelm them.
Try to organize your thoughts before breaking the bad news. Employees need to know what the decision is, why it was made, and how this affects them. Beyond that, giving them too much info can actually keep workers from processing what you just told them.
Let Workers Speak Their Minds About Bad News
Whatever kind of bad news you need to break, here’s a simple rule to follow: It shouldn’t feel like a “sit and get” session where you are the only one talking.
Instead, you should give employees a chance to speak their minds. This may include allowing everyone to ask questions as part of the group as well as letting workers know your door is open if they have questions.
As we noted before, workers are likely to feel hurt and scared when they hear bad news. By letting them ask questions and generally speak their minds, you can help your whole team focus on moving forward in a more productive way.
Break the Bad News Sooner Rather Than Later
When you have bad news to deliver, you may be tempted to take your time. Take it from us: It’s always important to break the bad news sooner rather than later.
That’s because no matter how big or small your office is, there will always be plenty of gossip. As soon as workers get wind of bad news, that bad news will spread like wildfire. It will lead to things like anger and rampant speculation that may derail your whole team.
By telling employees bad news sooner rather than later, you can get ahead of any rumors or gossip that may be forming. Let’s be honest: When there is bad news brewing, your workers deserve to hear it from you rather than the rumor mill!
Find Your Dream Job as a Manager
Now you know how to break bad news to your employees. But do you know where you can find a job that makes the best use of your managerial skills?
Here at Seguros Confie, we are always looking for great managers who know how to bring their teams together. To see how we can help find the managerial job you’ve been dreaming about, all you need to do is apply today!