In the fourth extract from HIring and Firing, we discover that there's no subsititute for the truth.

Paul Anderson, the chairman of Spectra Energy, says:

“Early on in my career, I had my most embarrassing lesson, which was: don’t try to sugarcoat bad news. It happened the first time that I was put in a position where I had to fire someone. For all people, the first time that you have to fire someone – in fact, any time you have to fire someone – you are basically uncomfortable. It’s not pleasant news, it’s a difficult situation and so you try to figure out the easiest way to get the story out without appearing to be a bad guy.

“I gathered my thoughts and went down to the HR department and said: ‘I’m going to be firing George this afternoon, and you might expect to see his face at your door. I’ll send him down to figure out his options with regard to termination payments and so on and so forth.’ I felt I was pretty well prepared. I called George in that afternoon and I said: ‘George, things just aren’t working out. We have some problems here.’ I explained why he wasn’t contributing to the organisation. I said: ‘I’m sorry to tell you this, but you are just going to have to look for another job. I think the next step is for you to go down and talk to the folks in personnel, and then you can figure out what your options are from there.’ I thought: ‘Well, that wasn’t too bad; George didn’t seem particularly upset.’ He was concerned, he was sorry that it wasn’t working out, but he didn’t seem as upset as I would have been had someone just fired me.

“The next morning I came in – and so did George. He was sitting there at the desk as if nothing had happened. I went over and said: ‘George, why are you here?’ He replied: ‘I’m here working on this project.’ I asked: ‘Didn’t you understand our discussion yes-terday?’ He said: ‘Yes, I did. I understand that I’m not working out in this position and that I should go down to personnel and talk about what other options there are within the company for me.’

“I thought about it and realised that was probably not an unfair interpretation of what I had said, because I wasn’t that straightforward. I didn’t say ‘You need to find another job outside this company; you’re fired.’ So, I had to replay the conversation to him, explain to him that he was indeed fired, take him to personnel and complete the task. It was much more unpleasant to have two conversations.

“But it taught me that if you think you’re doing people a favour by sugarcoating news, or if you think you’re making your life easier by being somewhat oblique in the way you deliver bad news, you’re kidding yourself. There’s no substitute for straightforward, between-the-eyes truth. If you are at all obscure about what you’re telling them, they will hear what they want to hear.”

This is an edited extract from Hiring and Firing , a new book in the Lessons Learned series from Harvard Business Press and 50 Lessons. Watch Paul Anderson talking about his experiences and see videos from previous books in the series at timesonline.co. uk/leaderslessons

KEY POINTS

Don’t try to sugarcoat bad news, particularly when the bad news results in someone being fired.

When news is not delivered in a clear manner there is room for misinterpretation of the message. In cases of this nature, people will tend to hear what they want to hear.

There is no substitute for straightforward, between-the-eyes truth – a lesson that holds true for good news as well.

The only thing worse than delivering bad news is delivering it badly.

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