- I did not see this coming.
- How can you let me go? Just last week you said I was doing well.
- It is too late for a counter offer. The decision has been made.
I have seen lots of different situations in 20 years of working in and around organizations. It was not until recently that I stopped being surprised by situations in which people did not see the news they should have heard. We could discuss the endless reasons why, but that would not stop it. Here are three ways to make most of the confusion go away.
- Write it down: Verbally telling people their performance is not up to par is only half the task. When asking for more or defining minimum expectations it has to be written down. Limit yourself to a page, but write it down. If it is positive, do the same thing. I am confident that 100% of the time verbal feedback is misinterpreted.
- Never deliver ANY news (good or bad) without scheduling a next step: Bad news: Take this and think about it for 48 hours and then lets get back together and make plans for what will fix this situation. Good news: You are very valuable to this organization and I would like to come up with a list of projects/roles we should be working towards over the next 3-5 years. Give it some thought and lets sit back down in a month and do some planning together. People need time to process bad news. Good news needs to be celebrated, then processed. Next steps ensures the processing time is valuable.
- Ask them what they heard: It is important to check for understanding in either situation. In the delivery of good and bad news leaders usually talk too much because of nerves. That is normal, but it is always a good check to end with – I have talked a lot, and it is important that some key points were clear. What are you taking away from this conversation? If they cannot repeat the main points you should repeat them (even if they are written down).
Assumptions are dangerous and we all have a hard time telling / hearing certain messages. Follow these simple steps and make the confusion go away.
Do you have any helpful hints to add based on your experience?
