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In business, a good majority of a manager’s time, hell… in most occupations, or just life in general, is spent delivering bad news to people. It’s telling people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear. It’s coming from a place of caring for versus caretaking. The idea is that if we truly “care” about a person, we will have the courage to share with them where they have opportunities to improve and grow; i.e. where they’re fucking falling short. Anything less is caretaking and harmful to them in the long run because caretaking people is really just enabling someone to stay stuck in mediocrity, or worse. We do this shit because we’re selfish. We don’t want people to get pissed at us for telling them the truth they don’t like, nor want to hear, so we don’t. We allow them to continue to wallow, all in the name of saving our own ass. It’s the coward’s way. I know because I’ve done it. You’ve done it. We’ve all done it.

As such, sharing hard truths with people is often as painful to send as it is to receive. But, how can a person expect to improve if they’re operating without the necessary knowledge of where they’re falling short? But this doesn’t have to be mean-spirited. In addition to delivering accurate and honest information intended to help, we also have a responsibility to deliver it in the proper way, at the proper time, for it to have the most impact. Most effective communication is as much about the “how” as it is about the “what”…

Stay tuned-in…