HR Pulse - Spring 2008 - (Page 33) employee as soon as possible after the incident. If you wait too long, by the time you do confront the employee, the feedback is likely to be too general and ambiguous, not instructive or constructive. Or, due to intervening events, you may forget to confront the person at all, missing your window of opportunity for coaching and counseling. Don’t let your discomfort at confronting employees keep you from giving timely, constructive feedback. 7. Once you have made the point, don’t keep repeating it. It would be ideal for the employee to agree with what you’re saying and apologize for his mistake, but it’s not critical for purposes of managing performance. What is imperative is that the employee understands your specific expectations for change and the consequences for not meeting them. Before terminating the session, ask the employee to summarize what he heard you say, and document the critical elements of the discussion. 4. Level with the employee. Don’t level the employee. Package your ideas in a constructive and instructive manner. Regardless of provocation, don’t yell, swear, interrupt, stomp the floor or pound the table to get your message across. If you allow the employee to control your emotions, you are allowing him to control you. Don’t give him that kind of control over you. Operate from quiet strength. Stay calm and focused. 8. Address one issue at a time. Don’t “sandbag” the employee by collecting misdeeds that have occurred over a significant period of time and then, in one single conversation, overload the person with a long list of complaints. When you inundate an employee with a litany of performance deficiencies, the person simply can’t focus on any one particular issue. The conversation is a blur. The employee feels overwhelmed and hopeless. Of course, when you are conducting an annual performance appraisal, it is necessary that you discuss all of the employee’s strengths and developmental needs. But for day-to-day dialogue, focus on one specific incident at a time. Also, there should never be any surprises or new issues raised on the annual performance appraisal. If the employee was doing something wrong six months ago, you should have talked to him about it at the time. He could have corrected the problem had he only known about it. 5. Do not get personal or use negatively loaded words that will naturally induce employee defensiveness. Avoid terms like stupid, lazy, incompetent, unprofessional, and disrespectful. These terms are hopelessly general and ambiguous, not specific or behaviorally concise. They don’t tell the employee what actions are problematic. Rather than tell an employee that she has a “bad attitude,” for example, describe the behavioral manifestations of the bad attitude: “When I asked you to do something just now, you rolled your eyes and made a deep sigh as if you were doing me a favor. This is, after all, part of your job.” It’s not a question of whether you should confront the problem employee but how you will address the performance deficiency. 33 HR Pulse Spring 2008 9. Be prepared to listen to the employee’s perspective before drawing any firm conclusions. Even if you catch an employee “dead to rights” doing something wrong, you may want to consider opening the dialogue by inviting the employee to explain his actions: • “Help me understand why you just did that.” • “Let’s discuss what just happened.” • “Can you tell me what was behind your actions?” Things may not be as they appear at first blush. The employee’s feedback may cause you to pause and reconsider your initial judgment. First get all the facts. Then draw your conclusions. 6. Be specific regarding what the person should do or say differently to meet your expectations and the consequences for not doing so: “When you are finished with your own work, unless it is your break time, I expect that you make offers of assistance to others in need of help without being asked. Instead, I saw you leave the work area without telling anyone where you went. The next time this happens, you will receive a written warning.” You’re not the employee’s psychologist. You’re her manager. It is often difficult to understand the psychological dynamics or motivation underlying someone’s actions. But you do have the right to legislate professional conduct that is conducive to a positive work environment. Always focus on the behaviors and their negative impact on the department. 10. Anticipate and plan for an immediate negative response to your message, particularly if the employee has a history of resistance, defensive- >>
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