A Critique Of Robert Luce's Negative Talk

If you ask ten people what's the hardest part of their job, about 9 of them will say something along the lines of "giving bad news." From firing people to having serious performance conversations, letting employees know when the company's not doing well to explaining a screw-up to the press - these are the times that make most leaders want to go home and pull the covers up over their heads. Receiving bad news is never one of life’s delights, but how is it for those whose job it is to deliver the bad news? How do they—judges, doctors, first responders, even wedding planners—survive the tough speeches day after day? Past experiences tell us that the best way to deliver bad news to anyone is to be objective and stay positive.

Luce begins her speech the way most people would - buttering up the audience. With this method, she can ease the blow of her criticism so it's not as harsh. When delivering criticism or bad news, it is always best to start with something good. For example, when friends want others to tell them when they do wrong, they also want some kind of encouragement along the way. Negative talk can beat a person down and cause them to not listen to what you have to say. Luce

took that into consideration because she wants them to listen to all that she says, but doesn't want them to think she wanted to do this. She tells them they asked for it - they wanted her to throw rocks at them. She is not deliberately going out of her way to talk badly amongst her audience. Unfortunately, there are far too many examples of this people speaking poorly to their audience - bad news being downplayed, blamed on someone else, or simply lied about. One of the most shocking would be former CEO's Tony Hayward's handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in which 11 people lost their lives and billions of gallons of oil ended up in the Gulf of Mexico. As the disaster came about, Hayward explained the spill as "relatively tiny" in comparison with the size of the ocean, saying that the environmental impact of the Gulf spill would likely be "very very modest." Most importantly, even when he apologized, he did it with a self-centered twist that made everyone cringe, saying "I'm sorry. I'd like my life back." This kind of talking will bring forth hate and cause people to ignore what is being said.
Luce identifies the specific action in which she is giving forth her criticism.

She makes sure they understand why and for what reason she is there, speaking in front of them. In the fourth paragraph, she starts talking about journalism and what it's about. She explains what it is and how it touches public interest. This is important in her speech because the audience needed a little reminder what what it should be. She goes on to say how they have put lies in their writings. As commonly known, lies in the public eye is one of the worst things to do. Take Hillary Clinton for example. Many people believe she was not elected president because she lied and hid things from others; she is known for her act of deleting emails. People value the honesty Trump has more than the lies Clinton

has.
Luce is extremely straightforward and honest with her audience. She refuses to give them sugarcoated criticism because that is not very beneficial in the end. Giving someone criticism is fine until one tries to sugarcoat it because then it's basically a lie. In the third paragraph of her speech, she tells them that they should not except buttered up or played down faults because it is not the truth. Many people are very reluctant when it comes to giving critical feedback. This is because they're so uncomfortable with the emotions that can arise from it—their own and others’. Most people hate to offend or hurt others' feelings, which only causes more issues. Usually, the safer option is to simply say nothing, let people continue on as they are, and just hope they’ll eventually realize how their behavior is hurting them and impacting others. Unfortunately, problematic behaviors that may seem obvious to certain people are rarely obvious to the person exhibiting them. Let’s face it - if it were easy to see how our actions limited our success we’d be more proactive in changing them.