Wes Kao's Newsletter

👋 Hey, it’s  Wes. Welcome to my weekly newsletter on managing up, career growth, and standing out as a high-performer. For more, check out my new intensive course: Executive Communication & Influence for Senior ICs and Managers

Work is hard enough as is. You don’t need that negativity associated with you, especially if a situation was out of your control.

For example, let’s say you and a partner organization submitted a proposal and were waiting to hear back from a major client. The client tells you that another company out-bid you with a lower quote.

Now, you have to tell your colleague that they have to re-submit a bid. You feel terrible because they put a lot of work into the bid. You could have set better expectations, so you’re feeling a little guilty for not having done that.

This happened to one of my clients, and he made the mistake of sounding overly negative in the email to his colleague. We fixed it, but it’s a valuable lesson for anyone who’s had to share negative news at work (which is all of us at some point).

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