Jon Antonucci says managers who reverse decisions should take the blame themselves, not throw staff under the bus to clients. When you own the mistake and let your team stay the good person, you keep morale up and show them they matter.
Chapters
And I tell managers all the time, if you are going to reverse a decision, it needs to be the opposite. If you come out and talk to the client, that should be because you're— only because you're backing up your person. No, this is how it's going to be, and I'm the bad guy. You don't— you don't— don't get mad at Susan. That's on me. I made that decision. If you can overturn it, empower your people to go do that. Send them back out there and say, hey, you know what, I talked to my manager, and yes, we can do this for you. Let them be the good person. But I see that happen all the time in almost every industry where managers undercut their staff and it demoralizes them. And that's just an example. That's not, you know, a hard and fast issue. That's an example of how a manager, without even meaning to, will absolutely steal dignity from their people and rob them of the value that they bring to a situation or a position.