Here’s how to handle employees when a kick in the rear is more appropriate than a pat on the back.
Praising good performance is easy, but what about those times when someone on your team needs a kick in the butt more than a pat on the back? In that case, you’ll need to give some negative feedback – and do it without demotivating or demoralising the other person. This post explains exactly how to do this.
Before we get started, though, it’s important to remember that the goal of feedback is not to tell people what to do or how to do it. That’s mistaking the process for the goal. The actual goal of feedback – even negative feedback – is to improve the behaviour of the other person to bring out the best in your entire organisation.
With that in mind, here are the 10 rules:
1. Make negative feedback unusual.
When a work environment becomes filled with criticism and complaint, people stop caring, because they know that – whatever they do – they’ll get raked over the coals. “I try to give seven positive reinforcements for every negative comment,” says Dan Cerutti, a general manager at IBM.
…to read this article in full, visit leading US small business resource, Inc.
