How to Give Negative Performance Feedback

Giving negative performance feedback at work is onestart the meeting by asking your team member to
of the hardest things to do well. Managers eitherreview what has gone well since you last met. This
destroy the confidence of employees by being toogets you off on the right foot because the employee
heavy-handed or they avoid giving negative feedbackis doing the talking and reviewing what he or she feels
altogether.good about, so you are fostering good feelings right
Because it is hard to do well, managers put it off.away. It is important to probe here so that you get at
Dealing with poor performance infrequently or on anleast 3 or 4 things on the table. You might add one or
ad hoc basis only makes the exchange worsetwo that you have observed as well in addition to
because the recipient is unprepared. Naturally,thanking the person. Then and only then should you
employees are defensive when feedback isask what has not gone so well.
unexpected. An angry reaction is all too likely, making itBy holding regular discussions, both sides get used to
much harder for managers to raise difficult issues indiscussing performance. There are no unexpected
the future. So, they resort to sarcastic comments andtalks which can so easily become confrontational.
hints. Or, worse, leave the problem to fester until theySecond, the team member gets used to reviewing
can no longer stand it so they fire the offender.successes and, as a result, is likely to look forward to
What is the way out of this dilemma? Popular advicethe meetings rather than dreading them. Third, by
only scratches the surface in my opinion. It talks aboutcreating a more positive atmosphere in such meetings,
the importance of such things as focusing on thethere is a greater chance of the team member finding
future rather than the past, of not being blame orit easier to own up to mistakes, especially if your style
punishment oriented and focusing on behavior ratheris supportive and developmental. When the manager
than personality or attitude. Such advice might alsostates the problem, the employee sees it as
suggest focusing on solutions, setting targets andjudgmental not supportive.
encouraging ''buy-in'' from the team member.Your role here is to listen and coach, not to be judge
But I think we need to look a bit deeper into thisand executioner. But it's not passive listening; it's active
problem. One important point is that if you really wantprobing, using supportive questions. It's not a police
to cultivate ownership for performance improvementinterrogation. If your team member is unaware of a
you need to get the team member to do most of theperformance problem and, hence, does not mention it,
talking. Much of the problem with conventionalyou should ask specific questions like: ''How do you
discussions of performance is that managers feel thatfeel X project went?'' If the team member makes
they need to carry the full load of delivering theexcuses or blames circumstances, you should then
messages. This approach is going to be painful forsimply ask what he or she could have done differently
both sides, to some degree, no matter how youor could do in future to avoid this happening.
structure it.The point is to use open questions in a coaching style
So, how can you get your team members to tell youto lead your underperforming team members to deliver
where they are going wrong and what they are goingthe message of where they need to improve, how
to do about it? An important step is to hold regularthey are going to do it and by when. Performance
discussions. I recommend once a month, even if onlyreviews will never be a picnic but they don't need to
for half an hour. The second step is to balancebe torture either.
positives and negatives. The best way to do this is to