DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

How to Deliver Bad News toYour Employeesby Amy Gallo

MARCH 30, 2015

KENNETH ANDERSSON

Delivering bad news is tough. Its even harder when you dont agree with the message or

decision youre 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 doesnt 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?

FURTHER READING

How to Handle Difcult Conversations atWorkCOMMUNICATION ARTICLE by Rebecca Knight

Start by changing your mindset.

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What the Experts Say

In a managerial role, its 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 dierent parties interests at heart that of your

employees and that of upper management. Talent management expert and

humanresources.about.com writer Susan Heatheld agrees: As a manager, you walk a ne

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. Heres how to

navigate the situation.

Prepare for the conversation

Be sure to have all your ducks in a row before talking with your employees. Specically,

you need to know how the decision was made, who was consulted, what other possibilities

were discussed, and the rationale behind the nal outcome. The manager should take as

much time as necessary so that she is condent in her own understanding of the answers,

says Heatheld. And, if you arent sure, go back to your boss, HR, or whomever made the

decision to ask these questions again. Margolis agrees: If you think all concerns werent

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 its delivered. Watch your body

language. Be sure that your nonverbal cues

arent telegraphing something dierent than

what youre saying, warns Heatheld.

Slumping your shoulders, avoiding eye

contact, or dgeting will send the wrong

message. Even if this is an obvious setback

for everyone, you need to condently convey

the information and leave no room for

interpretation. Consider rehearsing what youre going to say ahead of time. Go to a buddy

a fellow manager who can give you feedback on how youre appearing, she says.

Be thoughtful and caring but dont sugar coat the news. That makes it more dicult for

people to digest. Instead laser-focus on the decision and explain why its the nal call,

says Heatheld. For example, if you need to explain to your team that the company has

banned a particular software theyve been using, you might say: Weve made a decision. You

may not use this software going forward. Our IT department determined that its 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: Heres the process that was followed, the people we

spoke with, and where things came out.

Heatheld 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 inuence 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 Heatheld. 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: Its 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

dont do it with your people. You wont 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 were going to look into how these decisions are made going forward.

Allow for venting, not debate

Once youve 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 youre uncomfortable. Its part of your role as a manager to absorb some of that

emotion, whether its anger, surprise, or something else. Heatheld 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 dont 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, Heatheld agrees.

Focus on the future

Once youve 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, theyll 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 didnt get the promotion he was hoping for you can say

something like: Were 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). Its not necessarily how Id 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 lets 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 newsPrepare and rehearse what youre going to sayExplain the rationale and the process for making the decision

Dont:

Sugarcoat the news be clear and directLet your body language belie your wordsAllow people to debate the merits of the decision focus on moving forward

Case study #1: Explain the process and stand by the decision

Mark Costas (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 employees online

activities. They analyzed the costs and benets for each one and strongly recommended

the software that cost the most upfront but would yield the most long-term benets,

expanding easily as the company grew. But when management reviewed the teams work,

they decided to instead go with the cheapest option. Mark didnt 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 didnt share some of the

details hed been privy to, like the concern about the companys cash ow. He didnt 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 oce. The new hire, Sulayman (not

his real name), had been recruited from outside the country and had quit his job to join

Jihads rm, moving his wife and family with him. But only a few weeks after his start date,

upper management began to complain about Sulaymans performance and to question his

trustworthiness.

Soon, the CEO asked Jihad to re the new hire. Jihad worried that Sulayman was being

judged unfairly since he was an outsider challenging the companys status quo and told the

CEO that, in his opinion, this was an unjustied 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 eect.

Despite his repeated attempts to understand the reasons behind the ring, Jihad felt he

couldnt explain the rationale so he told Sulayman that he would be happy to set up a

meeting with the CEO. Jihad oered his list of contacts, and closed the conversation by

oering 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 nal. 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. Theyve both stayed in touch.

Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review. Follow her on Twitter at @amyegallo.

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