Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: How To Deliver Bad News

Can you imagine receiving a ticket for speeding and actually thanking the police officer? Well, it happens to Elton Simmons in Los Angeles. Amazingly, he has given 25,000 tickets with no complaints. No complaints in twenty years, since 1992! He’s the guy sitting on his motorcycle aiming the radar gun at cars all day. I heard this great story on the CBS news and found it on line via  the NY Daily News.

It’s all in his approach. Elton Simmons stated that he hates being talked down to so he never talks down to anyone he pulls over and he has an affable easy going way about him with a big smile. If he can manage to give out all that bad news to the general public (in LA traffic!) with zero complaints just think about how you can learn from his approach to deliver bad news to a colleague or customer or supplier or family member. And rather than multiple times a day it only has to be delivered occasionally (hopefully not too often).

Here are some ideas on how to use Elton’s approach for thriving while delivering the bad news:

• Keep your tone at a nice empathetic conversational level, not condescending nor sarcastic or too upbeat.
• Give the benefit of the doubt on their lack of following the rules or not following through, while at the same time holding them accountable (Elton gives a lot of tickets, no less than other Officers).
• Listen to their side of the situation and empathize with their challenges. In the news story they interviewed a person who just received a ticket and they said it was the nicest ticket they had ever received.
• Smile and treat them well. Several people commented on his nice smile and wondered how you could be mad at him. He said he practices this golden rule, “Do good, be good, treat people good.”

Here’s to your thriving while also delivering a message that is not positive; you can do both!

Photo credit via Flickr creative commons: pixieclipx