Handling Bad News

A CEO’s eagerness to hear bad news is an important quality. Encouraging organisations to respond to bad news brings the strategic advantage of promptly addressing supply chain, product performance and consumer satisfaction gaps.

In a fast-moving, highly digital era, bad news will, one way or the other, make its way to the organisation; therefore, before the competitor takes advantage of your weakness, encourage your employees to use adverse reporting to build better products and services. Encourage them to use the negative appraisal to introduce a new punch, angle, dimension, and strength to the product/ product line.

I have learned over the years that people have the psychological impulse to hide bad news with a barrage of good news. Usually, they think that with so much good information coming, a single nasty or negative hook may wean off naturally or lose its vigour. This tactic only turns the bad news into a festering wound.

An organisation will only discourage straightforward, blunt, and impromptu communication styles at the peril of becoming easy prey to competitors, who would turn this weakness into an opportunity to increase their share in the sales pie.

In short, shrouding bad news as either a temporary phase or a spell, which, if cast, could jeopardise employees’ relationship with their bosses, is the beginning of the organisation’s end.

A bad news does not necessarily concern product performance or the business model that has stopped responding to the changing market realities. It could be about the organisation’s surroundings, culture, the people working there, and the organisational behaviour requiring realignment to keep pace with the changing employee expectations. It could be about the organisation’s falling relationship with the regulatory bodies, government, and suppliers.

Among all the news about a product, customer feedback matters the most.

Unless it continuously evolves, every product is prone to become obsolete in three years. Inaction to match product performance with customer feedback put competitors in high gear that could smash the product and the organisation.

So, let’s be assured that retaining a leadership position is a constant struggle to remain updated, informed and open to bad and good news.

A smart leader would always treat his company as an underdog. With this perspective, you keep the competitor from eating your lunch. Not responding to mistakes allows others to catch you napping. It gives an eager upstart to push you out of business. It’s in your hands to let this happen three or fifty years down the road.

So, how does an organisation build a culture where bad news is welcomed as warmly as bad news? Some of the ways could be:

1. Have a flatter corporate hierarchy system to allow bad news to reach the CEO’s office faster for quick action.
2. Build a culture of discussion. Personal initiatives and a sense of responsibility thrive in an organisation open to debate.
3. Reward worthy failures—experimentation.
4. Develop a digital system that lets you quickly learn about bad news.
5. Give a system that enables your team to assemble around the problem to find a quick solution.
6. Have a system that supports bringing together virtual teams from different departments and geographies without wasting time?

Remember: Time is crucial in managing bad news.