When going gets tough, the tough tread thoughtfully

As the daily news, quarterly earnings reports and our personal retirement fund statements attest, these are, indeed, difficult economic times for businesses and consumers.

Many business owners and managers are struggling to hold on to customers, employees and viable vendors and suppliers. Despite our determination, we sometimes need to impart bad news. The way we handle unpleasant information, though, is just as important as hanging tough and working hard.

Delivering bad news in the best way possible goes a long way toward maintaining key relationships and preserving the opportunity to work with people again when times get better. So I would like to suggest a new aphorism for our times, “Tread thoughtfully in tough times,” expressed below in four main strategies.

Let it all hang out

I’m not talking about streaking through the company lunchroom when you need to share bad news. This strategy is all about timing. In a nutshell, when the news is bad you should give it all at once.

Some people take just the opposite approach and let bad news trickle out slowly over a period of days or weeks. That’s a surefire way to ramp up anger, anxiety or despair among your key constituents.

That certainly was the case for Intertech recently when a bank we were working with changed the terms of our agreement multiple times over a period of weeks, after we were told it was a “done deal.” As they repeatedly came back to us with bad news or demands for concessions, we became increasingly irritated. In the end, we chose to walk away, which might have been the bank’s ultimate goal in these credit-wary times.

On a personal level, imagine yourself on a gambling vacation in Vegas. If you knew the moment you walked into a casino that you were going to lose $100, but you were given the choice of losing $100 once or $10 ten times, which would you choose? If you are wired like most people, you’d choose to get the loss behind you quickly so you could move ahead. However, if you could choose between winning $100 once or $10 ten times, you’d probably go for the winning streak.

Let people choose

Remember the ultimatums your parents used to give you as a kid? “Finish your homework or you’re grounded this weekend!” Those ultimatums might have motivated us to get our work done but they sure didn’t feel very good. We’re adults now but many people in business are still operating on the level of parents delivering ultimatums.

Consider, instead, the goodwill that comes from giving employees, customers and vendors respectful adult choices. So if the news is bad and the recipient needs to make a decision, offer a choice if you possibly can.

Doing so will help ensure the bridges you’ve built with these individuals might survive to carry you both forward sometime down the road.

Get in their faces.

Sure it’s tempting to send difficult news in an e-mail or voice message, but it’s the business equivalent of a “Dear John” letter. The sender rarely is remembered or spoken about in positive terms ever after. Besides trashing your reputation, sending bad news electronically almost ensures that it is received in the most inflammatory way possible.

Since research shows that 38 percent of communication happens through voice (tone, rate and inflection) and 55 percent of communication is conveyed through face and body language, an impersonal electronic message only has a seven percent chance of being perceived correctly.

The other challenge with e-communication is that you have no way of gauging the mood of the recipient when you hit “send.”

Imagine having a fight with your partner and then heading to work. You arrive in your office still steaming, open your e-mail and read about an unplanned change to your project. How are you going to interpret the e-mail?

If the sender of the message had instead come to your office to discuss the change, he or she would have noticed your upset manner and probably would have decided to talk with you later. If the discussion could not be put off, he or she might have presented the information to you more carefully as dictated by your words, voice and body language.

Finish strong

Forget the adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” It’s just not true. I believe a more accurate statement is, “It’s never too late to make a good impression.” We remember the outcome of an engagement, project or relationship more than how it began.

Think about an experience in which a project or relationship started out with problems but, in the end, everything came together and there was a strong finish. Now play this scenario backwards. Think of a vendor who made a lot of promises, started out fine and then started making mistakes, creating problems for you and, in the end, dropping the ball.

Which one leaves a better impression? Who are you more likely to recommend to others or work with again yourself? Let’s be clear: I’m certainly not advocating “starting weak” only to finish strong. Rather, if you fumble the ball early, don’t assume it’s pointless to get back in the game.