Breaking bad news

During a training workshop on Redundancy Interviews one of the participants asked me the following question:

"How can I break bad news to someone without feeling so awful?"

It's a beautiful question because it touches the essence of the problem.
Because giving someone bad news is not supposed to feel good...

It just needs to hurt a little, otherwise there is something wrong.
We all know that empathy is an essential leadership quality.

But no one likes to feel bad either.
And since we are all little creatures of habit, we instinctively try to avoid pain as much as we can.

So when we have to break bad news to someone we start to postpone it.
Or we avoid it by talking about other things first.
We try to bring the news very carefully.
Or we start by saying that we feel so bad about it ourselves...

Or worse: it looks like this:

So what is the best way to do it?

Well, first of all you start by accepting the fact that breaking bad news to someone is hard and feels very, very uncomfortable.

Secondly you want to make sure you use the communication tools that are available to make the interview as effective as possible.

One of them could be practicing the interview a few times with a professional role play actor to get instant feedback on the effect of the chosen strategy. That way your are well prepared for 'the real thing' and there will be no damage to the person it concerns.

Would you like to know more about InterACT WA's Actor-led training workshops?
Contact me here and I'm happy to tell you more about it!

Practice makes you 60% better!

Be honest: when you have a challenging conversation ahead, how much time do you spend practising it? I mean really practising—sitting down, speaking out loud, positioning your hands as you want them, and using the appropriate tone of voice—as opposed to just thinking about how to approach it. I spent nearly ten years in sales, and I used to rehearse my negotiation skills in my car. While I was mentally preparing, I realized that wasn’t real practice. You truly need to say it out loud and act it out. Take it from someone who has spent a lot of time rehearsing like an actor. There are two forms of long-term memory to consider: 1. **Explicit Memory**: This type stores facts, events, people, places, and objects. 2. **Implicit Memory**: This retains perceptual and motor skills, such as riding a bike or typing on a keyboard. To recall explicit memories—like the script of your message—you need to consciously focus on the process of retrieval, which can be challenging. In contrast, implicit m...

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

We often perceive Leadership Communication as a purely verbal and intellectual exercise, but that’s not the complete picture. Leadership Communication is less about the words you use and more about how you convey them. As you present your message, your physical presence plays a crucial role. Your body sends its own signals through gestures and tone of voice, which can differ significantly from your spoken words. Unfortunately, it’s often your body language that resonates more with your colleagues. This brings us to a fundamental truth: when it comes to body language, actions do speak louder than words. Your body language can either enhance or undermine your Leadership Communication. Your eyes, mouth, hands, head, and various body movements all provide insights into your mental state. While gestures can emphasize your points, excessive or exaggerated movements may come across as overbearing or aggressive when your intention was simply to appear "strong." Certain gestures, like...

How I Failed in Feedback...

Research is finally showing the link between free-flowing feedback and better business results. In workplaces where managers don’t give and receive feedback, employee engagement rates limp in at 29%. On the flip side, when feedback is regularly exchanged between managers and employees, engagement jumps to 79%. But let’s face it, we’re human — and we find it tough to engage in feedback. Many of us —including myself — get defensive when we hear it, or we assume nobody wants to hear it. So feedback gets chronically buried and put off. But it doesn’t have to. In my experience, there is a simple principle that can play a key role in unlocking feedback: It’s not who you are, it’s what you do As a communication trainer and role play actor, I assume that everyone wants to, and can, get better. When I take this approach I find myself able to engage in discussions about areas for improvement with an optimistic and open heart. But even though I always try to take thi...

INTERACT WA

Search This Blog