Re: Negative Feedback (was: percentage raises at salary review time)

[John Posada <jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

Hi, Candace...

I looked at your example of a "critique" and to be
honest, I would say it beats around the bush and I
might also have a hard time seeing my lack of
performance.

Now, maybe it's just me, but if I do something not
correct, I want to know in specific terms. Don't worry
about hurting my feelings. Trust me, my income goes
real far in soothing my ego. I want to know exactly
where I stand.

There's a difference between "...I like what we've
done with this graphic, especially..."

and

"...performance was unacceptable and we were going to
impose a Performance Improvement Program..."

It almost seems like you are going overboard trying to
avoid confrontation and then smacking him in the
middle of the eyes with the results later.


> performance was unacceptable and we were going to
> impose a Performance
> Improvement Program, he claimed to be "blown away",
> because no-one had ever told
> him he was doing anything wrong.
>
> The environment I work in is very positive and
> upbeat. As the reviewer (and
> manager and coach), my style has always been to mix
> positive statement with
> suggestion and coaching: "I like what we've done
> with this graphic, especially
> the way it shows the relationship between these four
> key concepts. Now that
> you've included it in your book, the next step is to
> revisit the description of
> the graphic in the text and make those relationships
> as clear in the text
> description as they are in the picture. How do you
> think you should approach
> that?". I work really hard to keep my suggestions
> for improvements either
> neutral or positive. I could have said "the analysis
> is too superficial - you
> need to look in more detail at relationships between
> the key concepts."
>
> The employee missed two key things that I can see
> are implied rather than
> overtly stated: My comments, though phrased as
> suggestions, are really
> requirements; and any comment that says change, fix,

If you are going to impose a requirement, it is a
requirement. It isn't a suggestion, so don't phrase it
as one.


> improve, follow up, write
> more etc, is actually negative feedback.
>
> Is it the employee's fault that he missed the
> sub-text? To be fair, maybe not -

Not really. You wouldn't write instructions that
require the user to "read between the lines", why do
so with an employee?


===
John Posada
Western Union International
(w) jposada -at- westernunion -dot- com
(p) john -at- tdandw -dot- com
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