Imagine the following moment. You are hired to copy-edit a book, starting today, and you have two weeks to do so. Okay, sounds normal so far. The guy who is writing the book has to give it to you today and you haven’t heard from him—but it’s the morning, so it’s okay, no problem—so you gently ask him if his draft is ready to turn over to you. And imagine he responds by saying:
“Oh, the draft! Well, so much is written, and there’s a chapter about cowboys that’s new and great and I decided not to use the word ‘Indians.’ It was so much fun to write, but not as much fun as it was to rewrite the first chapter, which I was just in the middle of doing this morning…”
And he goes on and on like this. What would you think? You may find what he says interesting and perhaps helpful context for your editing, but you would be left wondering, “Wait, I need the book today, and I truly have no idea if I’m going to get it today or not.”
This is how you sound every single time your boss or client asks you a specific question that needs a specific answer and the first sentence or two doesn’t give him the answer. It sounds like you have bad news and you’re talking around them because you don’t want to admit it—which is probably worse than just telling him what you have to tell him.
The reason why too many people don’t answer directly isn’t always because they don’t want to share bad news. It’s more than that. Even when the news isn’t that bad, often the context is important. It’s natural to want to share context. And indeed, sometimes you should err on the side of giving too much context, not too little.
But how can it be both? How can you give lots of context, while also giving simple, clear, and direct answers?
The trick I use is to always lead with a direct answer and then immediately give the context around it. Often, I use this type of language:
- “Good news and bad news. Bad news first: the chapter isn’t ready. Good news: I just finished this part and that part and rewrote another part so it’s even stronger, and I expect to have it for you by tomorrow.”
- “The one-word answer is: no, it’s not ready. The one-sentence answer is: I was delayed because I rewrote this part and that part, and I improved the first chapter tremendously, and I think it’s realistic for me to have it by tomorrow.”
What’s good about using verbal tricks like “Good news and bad news” or “In a word X, in a sentence Y” is that it gives you an easy and formulaic way to deliver the bad news while immediately giving the key context that frames it.
