I have had the great pleasure of consulting in many organizations around the country. If I’ve noticed one problem that managers have it’s that of giving honest feedback to their employees. In fact, I’ve been able to make a little bit of a living supporting organizations that haven’t been as direct with their people. And why? Why are our managers not giving the kind of feedback we would like them to, to their line employees. Well, clearly it’s because they are trying to be nice.
I want you to think about this phrase, “nice is nice, if what we need is nice.” I’m going to repeat that again, “nice is nice, if what we need is nice.” Let me give you an example, an employee is going through a rough time, the manager wants to be nice. The manager may make excuses, maybe give them a little extra time to turn in reports and that’s probably, likely, very appropriate. However, in normal times, in regular times with employees, when we are trying to be nice, we are often being fake and that’s what I want our managers to consider. When you have a problem with your employee and you don’t confront that problem, you end up with an employee who is enslaved. No, no – I’m using that word very, very consciously.
When you know that your employee needs to be developed, when you know that you could actually bring somebody along, but in an effort to be…quote “nice”…we don’t give that employee the feedback, we enslave them. We leave them in a box, never to grow, never to improve, never to change. Why would a manager do that?
So, here’s a tip and we are going to draw from the very uneducated, Homer Simpson. I want you to think about managing your employees by saying D’OH. D-O-H. Three ways you can bring your employees along in a manner that not only improves their performance but leaves them intact.
- Be Direct.
Use fewer adjectives; make less of a big deal about just telling them what their performance issue is. Use as few words as you can and just say it. The research is really clear. The words you use matter less than you think. It’s about getting it out. So, be direct.
- Be Open.
If you’re going to give your employees feedback, you’ve got to listen to what they say back. Often times when there is a management problem, we, managers, are part of the problem. So, if we listen to our employees and take some feedback in the exchange, we may be able to manage the situation better.
- Be Honest.
There is no better way to be nice to your employees than by telling them the truth. By the way, you may be saying to yourself, “Well, who am I? I’m just their manager. I have many weaknesses and shortcomings, too.” That’s irrelevant. What matters is, as the supervisor, as the person’s manager, you tell them the truth as you see it. Does being direct, open and honest necessarily change the employee? No, not always, but you know you’ve done what you need to, to insure that the employee moves along.
The more you do this, that is, the more you give your employees direct, open and honest feedback, the more you’re going to find them making better choices about their performance in the workplace and the more they’ll improve their performance overall.