HR Pulse - Spring 2008 - (Page 32) What You Accept Is What You Teach By Michael Henry Cohen Setting Standards for Employee Accountability 1. Confront the employee privately behind closed doors, away from the public arena. Open criticism is humiliating. When you attack someone publicly, you provide the person no opportunity to save face or maintain self-esteem. The person is likely to get defensive and plot revenge. Onlookers also will be embarrassed and probably will identify and sympathize with the employee. They might think it could happen to them next. There exists only one occasion when it is appropriate to criticize someone in front of customers or co-workers: If you catch an employee in the process of doing something illegal, unsafe, or unprofessional and you are in a position to stop the wrongdoing, then you must immediately intervene. You should then apologize later for the public rebuke. 32 HR Pulse Spring 2008 2. © Copyright June 2006 by Michael Henry Cohen Mike Cohen is a nationally recognized workshop leader and consultant specializing in leadership and team development, organizational communications, employee relations, and conflict management. The following is excerpt from his book, What You Accept Is What You Teach: Setting Standards for Employee Accountability. In Chapter 5, “Commandments of Confrontation,” Cohen identifies best practices for handling confrontational communication in the workplace. Commandments of Confrontation You have already tried to be understanding and supportive. Perhaps you have looked the other way. Out of frustration you may have yelled, stomped your feet, or pounded the table. You may have even pleaded with the employee to improve his quality of performance. Nothing has worked. It’s not a question of whether you should confront the problem employee but how you will address the performance deficiency. Listed in this article are 15 commandments of confrontation (rules of engagement) that will not only facilitate positive behavioral change but also enable you to maintain a positive work relationship with the employee. Remember, you can be tough as nails and remain a decent human being. Keep your conversations confidential. Talk directly to the person with whom you have the problem, and never criticize one employee to another. When you talk about someone, it will most likely get back to him in a distorted and editorialized version. Trust in the relationship may be irreparably broken. Therefore, always be loyal to those not present. Once you violate someone’s confidence, you may not get a second chance to rehabilitate the relationship. 3. The best feedback is timely feedback provided you are cool, calm, and collected when delivering the message. Therefore, confront the
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.