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As a Good PM, How should you communicate bad news with team? Or what is the best way to communicate bad news with team?

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SHADAV MOHAMMAD ANSARI PMO| ITC INFOTECH INDIA PVT. Ltd. New Delhi, Delhi, India
As a Good PM, How should you communicate bad news with team? Or what is the best way to communicate bad news with team?
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RAJESH K L Project Manager, PMP| Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru, India Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Emotions play a great role when communications involve such things. Its better to take a more pragmatic approach while conveying bad news.
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Tamer Zeyad Sadiq Assistant Cost Manager| Turner & Townsend Riyadh, Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia
It doesn't matter what is a good way or bad way to use communicate with team. You should use a appropriate type of communication method as per situation or case and you must conduct ethical and responsibilities and be truthful when you communicate with any other stakeholder!!!
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Shilpi Gupta Senior Operations/Project Manager Gurgaon, Haryana, India
The communication method will vary based on situation. A project manager should deploy mix of right communication method and also be empathetic and sensitive to the team reaction.
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Abolfazl Yousefi Darestani Manager, Quality and Continuous Improvement| Hörmann-TNR Industrial Doors Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
The important thing is that you communicate the news and information. The way that you share has to do with the culture, circumstances and etc.
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Eric Simms Senior Program Manager Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Generally the best way to communicate bad news is as quickly as possible, with as much detail as you can provide, and with next steps to follow. You don't want your team thinking you were holding back information from them or attempting to deceive them.
An example is telling the team that the project has suddenly been cancelled and they will be fired at the end of the week. You should deliver this news as soon as you receive it so your team can start looking for new positions. You can also tell your team they can use you as a job reference as they look for new positions - that would help soften the blow a bit.
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1 reply by Sajiv Kulaparambil
Feb 18, 2019 3:21 AM
Sajiv Kulaparambil
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I agree with Eric that the bad news should be delivered as quickly as possible. It is always best that the team gets to know of the bad news from you than from any other source.
Often when this is being done, a number of queries will spring up which will have to be answered empathically while being honest and to the point.
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Guilherme Caloba Production Engineer| PETROBRAS Rio De Janeiro, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Do it quick, do it complete, address any questions and make the team as confortable as possible to keep doing a good job! Don't point fingers, assume your responsibility and move on!
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Sajiv Kulaparambil Senior Project Manager / Scrum Master| Decos Software Development Pvt. Ltd. Kalyan, Maharashtra, India
Feb 14, 2019 11:25 AM
Replying to Eric Simms
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Generally the best way to communicate bad news is as quickly as possible, with as much detail as you can provide, and with next steps to follow. You don't want your team thinking you were holding back information from them or attempting to deceive them.
An example is telling the team that the project has suddenly been cancelled and they will be fired at the end of the week. You should deliver this news as soon as you receive it so your team can start looking for new positions. You can also tell your team they can use you as a job reference as they look for new positions - that would help soften the blow a bit.
I agree with Eric that the bad news should be delivered as quickly as possible. It is always best that the team gets to know of the bad news from you than from any other source.
Often when this is being done, a number of queries will spring up which will have to be answered empathically while being honest and to the point.

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