Partial Criticism
I had a conversation with a client today who was discussing a particular problem he was facing in his business. His employees produce, in general, fantastic work at a pretty high level of quality. Their work, as a rule, is exemplary.
Their communication skills, however, leave something to be desired.
The problem he has is convincing them to improve their communication skills, without making them think that he has any issue with the rest of their work. That is, how to critique part of someone’s work without having them extend that critique to other areas of their work.
In some work environments, this is already handled through performance reviews. The review is often structured such that each area of an employee’s responsibilities can be addressed, and some will be praised, others, critiqued. However, the decision to have performance reviews in the first place is difficult, since they are often resented by the subjects of the reviews as being inherently biased.
That being said, perhaps the other approach is to lead off each critique with a compliment. For example, “Your quality of work has been fantastic, and you’ve been great at bringing in new clients. However, your expense reports have not been completed properly, so we have a hard time budgeting. Could you please try to fill them out properly in the future? If you need a copy of the guidelines, I’d be happy to email them to you.”
While this might be reminiscent of the opening scene of Office Space, in which Peter is approached by several bosses because he forgot the cover sheet on his TPS report, there is a difference.
First, the reason for the comment should be included in the critique – that is, answer the question as to why this issue is important.
Second, don’t dump extra information on the recipient of the critique, but make sure they’re aware that you would be happy to provide it if asked.
Third, make sure that one and only one person is responsible for making that communication.
If you have any other suggestions, I’d be happy to share them – just let me know!
Related posts:
- Motivating Employees
- You Need to Communicate
- Lessons Learned from the Corporate World
- Negotiating a Raise
- Take a Chance and Reduce Risk
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