How to Deliver Bad News to Your Team Without Killing Morale

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Tomorrow is going to be tough. A client just raised a critical issue to you, insinuating that your team just made a grave mistake. It’s a crossroad: a wrong move can risk you getting no more projects by this client–and you need to clean up the mess immediately. Knowing the consequences, you call in your team for a meeting the next day.

Sometimes being a leader means doing the uncomfortable work of delivering bad news. Perhaps many of us have been in this situation. As a leader, you’re solving issues at multiple fronts: the operational one and the morale one. The solutions are both pragmatic, but also relational. You want your clients happy, but you also want to ensure your team is not burnt out.

You’re wondering: What if your team senses your anxiety? What if they don’t understand (and worse, they don’t care) about what’s at stake here? How do you know if you’ve communicated the problem effectively? Are there anything better left unsaid?

Perhaps you know exactly what the roadmap would be moving forward. But explaining this roadmap to your team or clients is a different matter. It takes not just logic, but also empathy.

Honesty is the best policy

It’s never a good feeling to bring bad news. When a client says they’re ‘disappointed’ in your work, bringing this heavily-charged word to your team meeting may feel like you’re putting the burden on to them. Perhaps you can soften the word so you don’t hurt the team members’ feelings. But you also want your team to be aware of the scale of the issue.

If you’re encountering this situation, it’s best not to downplay the situation. Use direct language, avoid small talk, and make sure that your team understands the situation well without having to read between the lines. There’s nothing to gain when sugarcoating problems. People pick up on these immediately and can spin them into gossips and half-truths. It’s best to explain things clearly and lay out what the implications are, no matter how ugly it is.

Feelings matter

Make space for silences. It can take time for people to process news, especially if these are unexpected. And even if they are expected, it takes some moment for people to build up the courage to share their perspective.

Perhaps your team has felt frustrated working with this client for a long time, but nobody had the courage to speak up. Perhaps they know they are at fault, but they were trying to solve the issues on their own. Perhaps they are nervous and confused.

Acknowledging these feelings directly (“I know the situation was frustrating to you”) help the team understand that you’ve got their back. Of course, consequences may arise. But being emotionally present builds trust and comraderie. And a unified team is most critical during difficult times.

Be direct and clear

It is at this critical crossroad like these that we, as team members, look up to our leaders. Where should we go from here?

As someone who has been on both sides–the leader and the team, this is a tricky question. The answer is certainly more ambiguous than we want. The action plan is more like a bet than a blueprint. Perhaps our best action plan still contains numerous risks, and perhaps it may not resolve the issue the way we want it to be.

Despite the uncertainties, ambiguous direction and goal are just another murky path towards deadends. So it pays to be assertive and confident with your decision. Use clear action-oriented sentences, such as “let’s send this by the end of today” or “make sure to double check” to steer the team towards a certain goal.

If you don’t have an answer to something, be honest and clear about this. It’s generally not wise to overpromise. But also ends it with a positive note: that this is something we can go through together.

End with positive note

No matter what, give everyone–both the client and the team–the benefit of the doubt. I always like to assume that everyone has done their best, even if it still fails our expectations. Appreciate their effort. Specifically state what they had done right.

Bad news shouldn’t break the team’s morale, but should strengthen it instead. Empathetic leaders can cultivate a culture of trust. But being clear with your communication is just as necessary as being compassionate–and this takes practice, time, and some skills.

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Michelle Anindya

She is a writer and journalist. She is currently a post-graduate student of Anthropology at the University of Indonesia, focusing on how technology is used in religious communities.