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How to prepare to give bad news about a job interview

 In Message creation

‘I had to tell an internal candidate that they didn’t get the job . . . that it went to an external candidate’.

Recently a client of mine told me about a situation where he had to tell a direct report that he didn’t get the job he had interviewed for. He found this situation a difficult one to handle.

Here are suggestions for handling this situation.

Before meeting with the person – go to the room where you’ll deliver the message. Sit in the chair where the person will sit. Take some time to imagine that it was you, who was receiving the message.

Reflect, on how you, would want to receive the message. How you, would want to be told? What kind of the body posture, facial expression, voice tone would you want the other person to use? What words would you like to hear?

Speak the following message aloud,

‘Everyone is fighting a battle I know nothing about’.

By sitting in the other person’s chair, doing the emotional reflection and speaking the above message – you’ll communicate in a manner that will help the person better receive the message.

In addition consider this quotation by Michael Coates.

‘The best way to be highly influential is to be human to everyone you meet.’ 


Own the Conversation

Consider a difficult message that you’ll potentially need to deliver in the next 30 days. Slot the link to this post in your calendar on the approximate time of delivery. Carry out the above suggestions prior to delivering the message. Reflect on the impact of using the suggestions.


p.s Check out this post on How to handle reception desk interactions.

#You might want to trial my Confident Personal Communication video learning programme because it will give you practical techniques to ‘Own the Conversation’.

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