4 Strategies to Make Your Bad News Presentation Suck Less
An unsuspecting tomato is thrown at a line chart. (Chart image via Stephen Phillips - Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash)
Last week we talked about how we can present bad data to leadership. Today, let’s discuss what to do when you have crappy news to deliver.
We often have to present poor performance numbers at work. For me, this is one of the most nerve-wracking moments of the day.
Done wrong, sharing bad news can go so terribly. But done right, you give your data program credibility and put the focus back on using the data to make better decisions for your business.
Performance is not personal, but it sure feels that way when you are the proverbial messenger being shot in a boardroom. People can become defensive or outright hostile, especially when they’re surprised or feel publicly called out over results.
Ok, so how do we do share a bad news presentation?
Prepare, prepare, prepare.
It all comes down to all the work you do before walking into the room (or entering the Teams lobby).
Prepare yourself. And prepare your audience.
Strategy 1: Do your homework.
Your homework is twofold. First, knowing the context in your company: how people have handled bad news in the past.
What surprises me most is the intensity of emotional response I’ve gotten from delivering bad news.
Data baggage is real. People may have been disciplined or fired over poor results in the past. Obviously, that’s not your approach but your audience doesn’t know that.
I always feel more confident walking into a room having put myself in the audience’s shoes about my presentation. When I think through how I’d react in the face of a very intense or emotional response to my presentation, I handle questions and comments more calmly.
If you don’t know what to expect, ask someone who does. Your manager, colleagues, or someone with institutional knowledge of the company. Knowing people’s motivations, attitudes, and needs is the basis of stakeholder engagement.
The second part of your homework is the more traditional analytical work – get your facts straight, anticipate questions about the data quality, specific performance issues, and how these results compare historically.
Having these facts at my fingertips makes me more confident when answering the tough questions.
Strategy 2: Socialize bad results in advance. No surprises.
Approach impacted teams in advance to understand WHY the performance was bad. Approaching the working team gives them a heads up in case an audience member (like an executive) comes knocking on their door later. This is just good relationship management.
Contact the impacted audience members too. Let them know that you’ll be sharing this information so they’re not surprised when it comes up. That lets them go back to their teams if they need to get more contextual information or prepare for questions from others in the room.
Surprises can be fun – at a birthday party. Not in the boardroom.
When presenting data, there should never be a big dramatic reveal of performance results.
Strategy 3: Try not to attach too many emotions to the metrics
Words matter. The way you describe the results influences people’s impressions.
It’s ok to say things didn’t go well, but don’t be overly dramatic in the language use unless it’s unequivocally true. For example, words like “disastrous”, “nightmarish”, etc. construe a lot of negative emotion and don’t add value.
You could make a case for using this type of language sparingly to really drive a point home – but remember that the more frequently you use dramatic language, the more diluted the effect.
No one is going to pay attention if the results are a “disaster” (when they really aren’t) month after month.
The best approach is to be calm and neutral in tone, spoken and written.
Strategy 4: Be ready to redirect the presentation
Sharing bad results as a part of a larger presentation can send a presentation off the rails.
Sometimes, a discussion about the bad news results can take over the meeting.
Before the meeting, you can anticipate that more time should be allocated to this discussion and build in a natural pause to account for it.
As the presenter, you should be watching the timing and judging when to move the discussion along.
Try these phrases if the discussion goes on too long and you need to move it back on track:
“Let’s set up another meeting to discuss this particular metric in more detail.”,
“I’ll arrange to have another detailed session to go over these results.”
Or, if appropriate, “I’ll set up some time with the subject matter experts to explain these results more fully.”
Final thoughts
We all have to share bad results sometimes. You can set yourself apart by empathizing with your audience, preparing your presentation, and remaining calm.
A bad news presentation can be daunting but it doesn’t have to be the hardest part of your day. You CAN get through it without having the proverbial tomatoes thrown at you!
If you’ve done all your prep and you still feel nervous, I find roleplaying a great tool to get some of the jitters out. And as with all the non-technical skills we talk about in this blog, practice makes perfect. Good luck!
