How to Deliver Bad News When It’s Not Your Fault

Metadata

  • Author: Wes Kao
  • Full Title: How to Deliver Bad News When It’s Not Your Fault
  • Category:articles
  • Summary: When delivering bad news that isn’t your fault, choose your words carefully to avoid negativity and over-explaining. Get to the point quickly and remind the recipient of their role in the situation to mitigate blame. Use these strategies to communicate effectively while protecting your credibility and relationships.
  • URL: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/delivering-bad-news-thats-not-your-fault

Highlights

  • tell us bad news immediately—because good news takes care of itself. We can take bad news, but we don’t like it late.” (View Highlight)
  • If people tell you what you really don’t want to hear—what’s unpleasant—there’s an almost automatic reaction of antipathy. (View Highlight)
  • When people get bad news, they want to blame someone for their frustration—don’t let that someone be you. (View Highlight)
  • “Angry words send alarm messages through the brain, and they partially shut down the logic-and-reasoning centers located in the frontal lobes.” (View Highlight)
  • When we feel guilty, we tend to over-explain. We secretly hope that by explaining, the person will understand and absolve us of guilt. Don’t give in to the temptation to explain everything in excruciating detail. (View Highlight)
  • The danger of accidentally accepting blame is it legitimizes your audience’s negative perceptions, even if they were inaccurate and misplaced to begin with. (View Highlight)