5 Tips for Breaking the Bad News
April 6, 2008
Sometimes it’s necessary to break a bit of bad news to a large group of people. And, if the people you’re breaking the news to is a group that you rely on, it can be a tricky situation to break the news and maintain their trust and your position of leader in their minds. Especially if the bad news is your fault. Here are a few things that can be helpful.
- Don’t Wait - Tell them the news as soon as you can. Get it out and in the open before they can find it out another way. This will put them in a position to react to the news more responsibly and it will show them that you care about their needs.
- Tell Everyone at Once - Get together your entire group and tell them. Don’t single out individuals to tell them separately from everyone else. If you think that meeting your group one by one to tell them the news individually is a way to keep your conversation with them more personal, you’re wrong. Breaking up the group creates more problems than it solves. First, it creates an atmosphere of secrecy - Second, it makes the situation seem worse than it is - Third, it turns your group against each other. Stand up like a responsible person and tell them all at once.
- Apologize - If it’s your fault, apologize for the mistake. There’s a strange idea out there that apologizing makes you weak - It’s just not true. A strong person apologizes when they’ve made a mistake. A person with weaker convictions cowers behind false strength
- Explain the Situation Thoroughly - Don’t make the mistake that under explaining the situation and misrepresenting some of the facts will be overlooked. Make sure that you are completely straight forward. Hiding things is probably what got you in trouble in the first place, this is your opportunity to finally come clean.
- Put it in Writing - Nothing says “Trust Me” like putting everything in writing. If you want something, especially if you need help resolving the situation, don’t expect anyone to come to your aid if it’s not written down and signed by you. If you can’t put it in writing, then you probably don’t deserve the help. And, don’t wait for someone to ask - Just do it!
I’ve probably overlooked some really important points - Let me know in the comments if you noticed any specific ones.
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About
Justin Flowers
Mad Scientist
Zombie Expert
Fort Worth, TX -
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