Communicating Bad News
Communicating Bad News
Scenario: You are a middle manager at a large technology organization, and leadership has informed you that the company will be going through a reorganization. The company has been losing revenue for too long and immediate action is necessary. A mass downsizing is impending.
Your job is not in jeopardy. However, you will lose team members in the downsizing. Your team members are panicked and you need to step up to address the issue with them. You also need to maintain productivity and results.
You call a meeting to discuss this with your team. This is not an easy message to communicate.
Considering the course materials for this week, discuss your approach by addressing the questions below:
What is your communication strategy with your team?
How often will you provide communication with your team about updates? Remember, you need to keep them informed, but not panicked.
How will you get your key message across while keeping your team productive?
What can you do to reduce the challenges of distraction and the rumor mill for your team?
In addition, we will also learn that to communicate effectively, connecting with your audience and by being present, is useless, if you do not communicate strategically. The goals of communicating strategically are to inspire your colleagues to a cause. That is what all business is, after all. It is groups of individuals working toward a common goal or goals.
Our Discussion post this week involves speaking to your team about impending bad news. You have to announce that the company is being downsized. Your job is not in jeopardy. To avoid panic, you have been assigned the task of managing this communication. No script is needed here, but just an exploration of your strategy.
As you consider this topic you might find these interesting:
“How To Deliver Bad News To Your Team”
Mastering The Art Of Delivering Bad News To Employees
https://www.jobmonkey.com/employer-insights/delivering-bad-news-employees/
In addition, these YouTube videos might help you prepare for this week’s discussion:
“5 Steps to Giving Bad News to Your Employees in the Best Way”
“6 tips for delivering bad news to employees at work”
“Managing the Boss How to Deliver Bad News”
After you have explored the reading material and videos for this week and my suggested articles and videos, please consider the following questions within your discussion post:
What is your communication strategy with your team?
How will you prepare yourself for this meeting?
How long after receiving the news will you address your team?
What emotional characteristics will you include when addressing your team?
How will you maintain being candid and transparent and for them to understand you will do whatever you can to protect them?
How will you make sure your non-verbal actions match the tone of your verbal comments?
Will you entertain questions? For how long?
How will you handle those employees who get highly emotionally upset?
How often will you provide communication to your team about updates? You need to keep them informed, but not panicked.
How will you get your key message across, while keeping your team productive?
How will you keep them engaged even after you have shared this news with them?
How will you handle the future?
How will you address the potential rumor mill?
What can you do to reduce the challenges of distraction and the rumor mill for your team?
What will you tell your team about communicating with you to confirm a rumor?
Please do not rush to post. Bring in some outside references to also support your post. Don’t just list references at the bottom of your Discussion Post but use in-text citing to identify where in the post the material you are referring to is being highlighted.
As we enter the second half of our course, remember, you are judged at work by your communications. Everything should be run through Grammarly. Since this is easy to do, if you have multiple grammar and spelling errors in your post, your grade, unfortunately, will be reduced. This is not punitive, but to let you understand your boss will think you do not care about details if your communications contain errors that could have been easily been corrected.
Lastly, in your colleague discussion posts, don’t just write ” great job,” and/or “I agree with you”. Bring in your past experiences, mention the week’s articles and videos; essentially, add depth and continue the discussion.
Please have fun learning with this discussion post, as you will, unfortunately, probably be involved with this situation sometime in your career.
