{"id":58068,"date":"2025-07-23T15:29:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"\/a8q0smd\/pain-points-podcast-delivering-bad-news\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T15:29:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:29:50","slug":"pain-points-podcast-delivering-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"product-content","link":"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/a8q0smd\/pain-points-podcast-delivering-bad-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Pain Points Podcast: Delivering Bad News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>When you&#8217;ve got bad news to deliver, do you put it off, hoping that things will improve on their own? Perhaps you try to water it down with some positives, in case people stop liking you? Or maybe you <em>enjoy <\/em>being the bearer of bad news, because it makes people fear you a little more?<\/strong><\/p><p>According to Kickstarter&#8217;s Chief Product Officer and author <strong>Mahesh Guruswamy<\/strong>, these are all traits of weak, old-fashioned, ineffective managers. He advocates instead for timely, precise, authentic delivery of any type of difficult information.<\/p><p>And in this episode of Pain Points, Mahesh he reveals the journey he&#8217;s been on himself, from &#8220;people pleaser&#8221; to confident manager and leader, capable of handing over bad news when he has to, in a way that works.<\/p><p>Discover the importance of getting your facts straight, the value of &#8220;controlling the temperature&#8221; of your message, and even how to tell your <strong>boss <\/strong>things they don&#8217;t want to hear!<\/p><div class=\"ew-audio\" data-source=\"embed\"><div class=\"ew-audio-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"360\" scrolling=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/players\/xoY4xbnU-i6FVyGfQ.html\" title=\"Pain Points Ep92\" width=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Useful Mindtools Resources<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n<p><a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"a0byhfl\/delivering-bad-news\" href=\"\/a0byhfl\/delivering-bad-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Delivering Bad News<\/a> (Article)<\/p><p><a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"avr6eqq\/managing-reactions-to-bad-news\" href=\"\/avr6eqq\/managing-reactions-to-bad-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Managing Reactions to Bad News<\/a> (Animation)<\/p><p><a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"aud48d0\/letting-people-go-video\" href=\"\/aud48d0\/letting-people-go-video\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Terminate Employment<\/a> (Video)<\/p><p><a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"a29fa9y\/how-to-be-tactful\" href=\"\/a29fa9y\/how-to-be-tactful\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Be Tactful<\/a> (Article)<\/p><p><a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"a38ihox\/how-to-tell-your-bosses-theyre-wrong\" href=\"\/a38ihox\/how-to-tell-your-bosses-theyre-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Tell Your Boss They&amp;#x27;re Wrong<\/a> (Article)<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>This Week&#8217;s Expert<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n<p><a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.maheshguruswamy.com\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.maheshguruswamy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mahesh Guruswamy<\/a> (Mahesh&#8217;s personal website)<\/p><p><a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Deliver-Bad-News-Away\/dp\/B0D7FHTTNN\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3O9BTKCEJ50MA&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lDuPB0s16Fq42gQRL1wNELLh2EaLIioGqFpqgusnPfw.8_5_MepQD88AROXcDuW4G5sGnZrB52X6JJpcKwAHiD8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=mahesh+guruswamy&amp;qid=1752242305&amp;sprefix=mahesh+guruswamy%2Caps%2C146&amp;sr=8-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Deliver-Bad-News-Away\/dp\/B0D7FHTTNN\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3O9BTKCEJ50MA&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lDuPB0s16Fq42gQRL1wNELLh2EaLIioGqFpqgusnPfw.8_5_MepQD88AROXcDuW4G5sGnZrB52X6JJpcKwAHiD8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=mahesh+guruswamy&amp;qid=1752242305&amp;sprefix=mahesh+guruswamy%2Caps%2C146&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&amp;quot;How to Deliver Bad News and Get Away With It&amp;quot;<\/a> (Mahesh&#8217;s book via Amazon.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you know how to deliver difficult news, with clarity, conviction, and in a way that boosts people&#8217;s confidence in you? On Pain Points this week, meet Kickstarter&#8217;s chief product officer Mahesh Guruswamy, author of &#8220;How to Deliver Bad News and Get Away With It!&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"product-content-category":[7011],"product-content-type":[2597],"reading-time":[5125],"class_list":["post-58068","product-content","type-product-content","status-publish","hentry","product-content-category-member-podcast","product-content-type-audio","reading-time-30-minutes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pain Points Podcast: Delivering Bad News - Mindtools<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you know how to deliver difficult news, with clarity, conviction, and in a way that boosts people&#039;s confidence in you? 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