As The Boss, one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do is give someone corrective feedback.
A few years ago, I facilitated a coaching skills workshop for a bank in New York City. Of the 12 managers in the room, all told me that giving corrective feedback was the hardest part of their job. Ironically, when I spoke with their direct reports, nearly all of them told me they wish their managers gave them areas to improve. They wanted to grow professionally and get promoted. Go figure.
Addressing poor performance needs to be done early. And often.
When our two golden doodles turned 8 months old, we enrolled them in dog training. The trainer instructed us to buy each of them a training collar. These things look like medieval torture devices and I initially protested. He assured us the collars only pinch and are much better on the dog than yanking the leash causing a leather collar to damage their neck muscles and bones. He also mentioned that the key to using a training collar is to just snap the leash quickly to issue what he called a correction. When he issued a command and the dog disobeyed, a quick snap of the leash made them obey. Soon the dogs obeyed without hesitation. The alternative would be an adult dog that jumped up on people, pulled on the leash, and refused to listen. The correction was a whole lot easier.
At the airport, on a recent trip to Orlando, Florida, I watched a mom issue a command to what appeared to be a 6-year-old boy. He shot her a hateful look and threw his backpack at her. I’m thinking a correction might have been a good idea but I’m not the parent. I wonder what things will be like for that mom when he turns 16?
But what about you…The Boss? Are you letting your direct report know when they aren’t meeting your standard? The time to do it is right when it happens. A correction. A gentle nudge to let them know their performance isn’t acceptable. Don’t wait until the behavior is constant and rampant. Trust me, that conversation will be hard on you and emotional for them. It’s as painful as a hard yank on a leather collar. It’s damaging and leads to fear and resentment on their part. And a loss of confidence on your part.
Being a responsible dog owner, parent, and Boss are similar in nature. They all require occasional loving corrections be made so you can have success later. As The Boss, please don’t ignore this responsibility.