In the end, I've found, people like the direct approach. It's much more valuable to them to have a leader who's absolutely clear and open than to have one who soft-soaps or talks in circles.
Harvard Business Review, Alex Ferguson, Bill Parcells, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Joe Girardi (2018). “HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership Lessons from Sports (featuring interviews with Sir Alex Ferguson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Andre Agassi)”, p.48, Harvard Business Press