How to Deliver Bad News through Presentation Slide?

Imagine one day you are asked to deliver an important presentation and most of the reports on the slide were negative / bad news. How can you re-structure and deliver it appropriately and not reduce the enthusiasm or motivation of the audience? DoctorSlide concludes there are 3 simple steps to handle it.

Tell Background Story (Not Reason)

To create same perception, you should tell the background story where that bad news comes from. For example, if there is a very noticeable decrease in sales profit, you can research and describe the bad impact of competitive market in the current business (explain in numbers and facts). This will make everybody on the same boat and get ready to hear what's next (solution to be taken).

Avoid Blaming Parties

Make sure when you convey the bad news, don't blame anyone. Words like "all of this happened because of ..." or "we have already known this will eventually" will backfire on you. Because such sentences indicate that you don't want to take care for what happened and of course it's not a sense of leadership. Highly suggested to keep appreciate those who have helped during the hard situation. Examples of sentences that can be used are as follows:

• "After conducting this sales program for several months, our result only reached xxx. It looks small, but this experience really can be a valuable lesson for all of us in the future"
• "We tried various strategies to get the best results that finally perched on xxx numbers. We believe there is still a lot of room that can be developed from the results of this evaluation, together"
• "Thank you for all teamwork. Although we are only able to make xxx sales, the world does not stop here. Our hard work will pay off in the next period provided since I'm pretty sure all of us will take this as priceless evaluation and learnings"

Create Solutions

Don't just deliver bad news or problems, maximize yourself to find out what kind of the solution that can be proposed as a precautionary measure and even to solve the problem itself. Invite the audience to proactively share their opinions regarding the proposed solution (make it two-ways communication). Listen to their opinions and filter and draw conclusions that you think can help solve problems.

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Disclaimer: this article originated written in Bahasa and being translated using Google Translate hence please understand if there's any mistake of tenses and/or misunderstanding that occurred. Read the original version by switch this web to Bahasa version on upper right button. Thank you for reading!

Pictures credit to Freepik