Delivering bad news to your boss or admitting to a mistake can often be daunting. Use these tips to skillfully frame the conversation in a positive light, turning challenging moments into opportunities for growth and shared understanding.
It’s never pleasant having to tell your boss something they don’t want to hear. Whether it’s sharing negative sentiments from an employee engagement survey, fessing up to making a mistake or addressing the leader’s own behaviour, it can be tempting for us to avoid these conversations. However, it’s crucial to confront them directly.
“When I think about having to share difficult news – or when I’m coaching someone on this – I often think of the Jim Collins quote: ‘Great organisations confront brutal facts,” says HR consultant Shelley Johnson, who is the founder of Boldside HR.
“So in our collective goal to be a ‘great organisation’, leaders are then more inclined to want to confront the challenging data or news that you want to share with them.”
Essentially, it all comes down to utilising your hard-earned social capital and influence to make the conversation as constructive as possible.
“Difficult conversations are almost always about influence,” says Johnson.
Wield this influence with confidence. For example, instead of dwelling on the issue – which is likely to annoy your boss – quickly own/outline the situation then focus on how you’ll fix it and what you’ll need from your boss or others to achieve that.
“Avoid leaning into how dire something is – even if it is. When you’re managing up, you need to be solution-focused. For example, you could say: ‘X has happened, which means Y. This obviously isn’t what we had planned or hoped for, but I am committed to working on a solution.’
“If you walk into a situation where you’ve made a mistake and you take full ownership, I’ve rarely seen managers react badly to that.”
Below, Johnson shares some tips to help manage these complex conversations with your boss.
A five-step guide to delivering bad news
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Other useful resources
Looking for more useful resources to help you? Try:
- AHRI’s short course on having difficult conversations
- AHRI’s short course on managing stakeholder resistance
- HRM’s article on managing complex conversations
- HRM’s article on how to ‘manage up’
- HRM‘s article on persuasive communication techniques
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