Stephanie Dillon
View all posts by Stephanie Dillon April 15, 2026
There’s an expression in journalism: “Burying the lede.” According to Merriam-Webster, the idiom “refers to hiding the most important and relevant pieces of a story within other distracting information.”
As a business leader, that’s something I’ve been guilty of doing many times before when the most crucial information is negative. I’ve observed other business leaders burying the lede, too. Burying the lede on negative news can take many forms in the business world, such as waiting until the end of a conversation about an acquisition to reveal a substantial amount of debt, waiting until an employee’s work performance has been bad for months before giving them feedback or starting an email by highlighting the good news.
In my view, as business leaders, we should avoid burying the lede when we have to share bad news.
The Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invitation-only community for Influencers, Innovators and Creatives. Do I qualify?
Why Burying the Lede Happens
Psychological research has uncovered interesting insights into why some people opt to give good news before bad news.
According to a Psychology Today article, one study tasked a group of people with providing positive and negative feedback to others about their personality inventory. Those giving feedback “were asked what news they wanted to deliver first.” The findings were interesting. The ones “who imagined what a recipient would want to hear tended to want to give the bad news first, while those who focused on their own feelings tended to want to give the good news first because they felt it would be easier to start by giving good news.”
In another study, the Psychology Today article explained, “participants who were instructed to think about how the other person would feel when getting the news were more prone to give the bad news first and then the good, compared to those in a control condition who were not given any specific instructions.”
Editor’s picks
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
100 Best Movies of the 21st Century
My takeaway from these studies is that people tend to go with the option that feels more comfortable for themselves. Giving good news before bad news is, I’ve found, easier. For instance, in my experience, when I have to have difficult conversations with employees, I find it challenging to deliver bad news. Reflecting on that, I realize that the difficulty lies in my wanting to keep myself comfortable.
Some other reasons I’ve observed that myself and other business leaders might bury the lede include not wanting to panic people, not wanting to jeopardize productivity and not wanting to appear as the bearer of bad news.
Consequences of Burying the Lede
I’ve found that there are often several consequences when we bury the lede on bad news.
For one, trust can diminish. For example, if you have an employee whose performance has been suffering for months and you wait until their annual performance review to voice your concerns, then they’re likely to feel startled and upset because you didn’t speak to them sooner so that they could address the issue.
Revenue can also take a hit. Consider a company that knew about a dangerous manufacturing error in one of its products. However, its leadership team didn’t mention anything until the malfunctioning products were discussed on social media. In that case, consumers might be hesitant to give that company their business, wondering what else the company is hiding from them.
Then there’s the cost of losing people’s attention. We’re bombarded with a lot of information these days. As a business leader, if you bury the lede, you risk burying attention — by the time you get to the important news, no one is listening or reading.
Related Content
Mature Innovation or Machine Governance? Why Business Leaders Risk Losing Their Seat to an AI Agent
Meaning, Not Machines: Business Leaders Set a New Agenda for 2026
Six Business Leaders Debunk the Biggest Myths About Achieving Success
Business Leaders: Nine Ways to Stay Resilient During Tough Times
How We Can Get More Comfortable Breaking Bad News
In the first study that the Psychology Today article referenced, 78 percent of the recipients who were getting news about their personality inventory “wanted to hear the bad news first, followed by the good news, because they believed they would feel better if they got the bad news out of the way and ended on a good note.”
Unfortunately, sometimes, as leaders, we only have bad news to break. But even in such cases, I believe that generally, we shouldn’t avoid difficult conversations, add irrelevant details to soften the situation, use euphemisms, give unwarranted optimism or give the truth in bits and pieces. Instead, I believe we should cut to the chase and break the bad news for what it is.
