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04/22/2019

How to Bear (and Be the Bearer of) Bad News

A little empathy and self-awareness goes a long way

Association leaders receive a lot of input during the day—from direct reports, volunteers, members and rank-and-file staff members—not to mention news stories and articles like the one you’re reading right now. And not all of that input is going to be positive. A fundraising campaign is falling short; a new product has gone off schedule; another pundit is telling you that however you’ve been doing things, you’ve been doing it wrong.

However rational we might consider ourselves in those situations, we have a natural habit of letting bad news get the better of us and deflecting the blame.

“People are prone to derogating those who tell them things they don’t want to hear—we shoot the messenger,” a trio of Harvard researchers reported last week in Harvard Business Review.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.

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