Project managers’ communication shouldn’t be honest only, but also clear and unmistakably.
How often did I experience uncomfortable messages or tasks brought to colleagues or superiors ponderously and with nice, ornate words. In the end everybody had understood something different, later discussions ended up in finger pointing but not in solutions.
Bad news are best communicated as they are, good ones by the way as well. At clear talks it is important that it is not offending but stays objective. To show a solution or forecast after the facts makes even a Hiob message more bearable, and the consequences get clearer.
An example: Sales had promised the blue out of the sky, not feasible by the project team. I did the maths with the Key Account and suggested to him to choose whether going back to the customer now with good arguments to re-negotiate, or later when the customer’s lever gets increasingly longer. And see, the customer was open to good arguments and preferred a successful project over an unrealistic price…