Communication Mistakes Managers Make
Posted December 5th, 2019
The end of the year can be a challenging time. Often, managers are tasked with delivering performance reviews, and not all of them will be pleasant. Plus, the holidays can impact attendance, and that might become an issue that needs to be addressed.
Confronting a problem is almost always difficult. This is especially true if these conversations aren’t managed properly, making a hard situation even worse. By avoiding communication mistakes, you can handle poor performance evaluations or other negative feedback with greater ease. With that in mind, here is a look at a few communication mistakes and how to avoid them.
Spewing Out a Massive List of Complaints
Whether you just tend to be nonconfrontational or merely compiled every issue that occurred over the past year into a review, dumping a laundry list of problems onto your employee is a terrible idea. First, this approach almost guarantees the worker is going to become overwhelmed. Second, you could become increasingly frustrated based on the perceived gravity of the situation, increasing the odds that your emotions will get the best of you.
Even if your complaints are valid, don’t spew a year’s worth of problems out in a single breath. It won’t help your employees succeed if you do. Instead, focus on recent issues during the performance review, and tap on them one at a time. Keep your discussion professional by focusing on the facts and remaining objective, as this decreases the odds that your employee will feel attacked and end up defensive.
After that, commit to avoiding this situation in the future. Instead of letting issues pile up, provide meaningful feedback when they occur.
Minimizing Bad News to an Extreme
While you don’t need to be brutal when discussing a problem like an employee’s poor attendance during the holidays, you also don’t want to minimize it too much. If you do, the point may not get across, leaving the worker unclear whether there is a problem at all, let along that they need to do something to fix it.
For example, if an employee has consistently been leaving early without justification, hedging about whether the attendance policy is reasonable or claiming you don’t necessarily have a problem with their absence, but HR does, diminishes the gravity of the conversation. Similarly, asking the worker, “Are you okay with trying to be on time” (and not telling them that doing so is a necessity) minimizes the problem.
If there is an issue, be direct. Clearly articulate the problem as well as action steps for solving it. Let the employee know what is at stake if they don’t make corrections and work with them to come up with a plan for resolving the situation in a way that you both can get behind.
Surrounding Negative Feedback with Compliments
There is tons of advice that says, when you need to deliver bad news, you should surround it with two compliments. The purpose is to skew the conversation towards the positive, making the bad news easier to bear. However, this approach can be confusing to employees and may cause them to be anxious any time you express appreciation. They might assume that something negative is guaranteed to follow, creating a fearful reaction even if nothing follows.
Instead of using that approach, keep your negative and positive feedback separate. When you offer a compliment, give the employee the chance to relish in it. If an issue arises, address it immediately to separate it from the positive conversations.
The only exception to this methodology is during an annual review. At that point, you’ll need to discuss positive and negative feedback. However, keep it separate by starting with the good news. Then, shift to the areas where improvement is necessary. That way, you can close the meeting with an action plan, making the end of the conversation solution-oriented.
By following the tips above, you can avoid communication mistakes. If you’d like to learn more, the staff at Bayside Solutions can help. Contact us today.
