“Because I am better than the rest of you, this is your problem. Good luck.”
Would that message inspire you? Would you trust an organization to navigate successfully the next challenge if this were the message it offered in response to today’s crisis?
Of course not. Yet, this is exactly the message most leaders communicate when facing bad news, like the departure of a critical customer to a competitor or the team of hard-working people that must be terminated during an economic downturn.
What message should a company communicate in tough times? What message do you want your organization to retain going forward? What distinguishes success from failure when it comes to communicating bad news to your organization?