Leverage bad news to create positive outcomes.

An addition to the board or senior leadership of a big company is big news. For those in the know, they’re often seen as ‘bellwether’ moments and votes of confidence.

The amount of coverage they receive reflects the significance of board and C-level appointments. Paragraphs of content are written: background, why they’re a good fit, quotes from the Chairman, quotes from the appointee, etc. 🥰 “Let’s mark it as market sensitive” and “Can we get it into the media?” It’s all love and roses at the beginning.

But what happens when that person leaves?

‍🤖 Excuse me, what now?

When you appointed John, he was THE GUY. His 30 years of experience was going to be the key to helping you grow, and now he’s gone, and we don’t know why.

• Does he know something we don’t?
• Does he see no value in the future of the business?
• Does he think management isn’t the right fit to execute?
• If the smart money is getting out, should I?🤕

Losing a key operator from the company, or an executive from the board is usually not ideal. For those ‘in the know’ at a company, it’s usually unexpected. For investors, it can leave many feeling nonplussed and, dangerously, a vacuum of information that the market is left to their information to fill.

Despite the difficulty and pain of communicating bad news, it’s paramount to deliver it in a way that conveys “everything is OK”.

‍Here, you can see lots of reasons and validation. There are fewer questions unanswered, and, therefore, less room for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt to creep in.

If anyone has questions, they know exactly where to go and what to do - come and ask you!

And by you, I mean a resource you have on it. The video can be super easy, just 3 minutes of the departing Director and Chair smiling, talking about the future, shaking hands and happy days. 😊

It ties into last week’s article; none of this is too difficult. It’s not hard to deliver bad news well, but it’s very easy to deliver bad news badly. Making challenging news easier to digest for your investors, builds trust in the long run and in this market, every bit of that helps. 🤝