Be the Bearer of Bad News

Someday soon, you'll come across some bad news in your company.

Maybe your company got hacked. ?

Maybe you have a recurring product issue that's angering customers.

Maybe an employee interacted inappropriately with a regulator.

Who knows?

Could be a lot of things.

The question is, as your company's chief communicator, what are you going to do about it? ?

One of your options -- often the best option -- is to be the bearer of your own bad news. ?

It's tempting -- but too often wishful thinking -- to believe that the bad news will go away on its own, or that it will fly under the radar.

Maybe it will.

But it probably won't.

You only have one chance to frame the issue in the way you want to.? Take it.

If you break your own bad news (it's a whole 'nuther subject about exactly how you want to break it), you will have the chance to frame the issue.? And you will earn trust by coming forward voluntarily and transparently.

I can recall a time at PG&E when a criminal indictment of the company was imminent (related to an event several years prior).

The normal procedure for an indictment would be to wait for it to happen and then to issue a statement that hopefully didn't offend the Justice Department.

Instead, we broke the news that we believed the indictment was imminent and unwarranted.

Some people thought we were nuts. But we had our one chance to frame the issue without others doing it for us.

And -- and this is WAY more important -- our employees heard it from us first, not on the news.? They didn't forget that fact as the process wended its way through the courts.? They trusted us to keep them informed and to be timely in doing so.? And we did.?

I'm not advocating that you come out with bad news every day. It's not desirable. And it's not necessary.?

But there are times when breaking your own bad news is the best course of action.