Welcome back!
I hope you are all doing well. Today we are going to go over criticism and how to properly deliver it. Believe it or not, the majority of the work force today wants feedback and criticism. It helps people to grow stronger in their career. However, if it is done in a manner that berates them, you will see them walk out the door quickly.
As leaders, it is our duty to stay on top of performance. If someone is doing a task poorly then we should jump on the opportunity to provide criticism. It is not fair to anyone to allow poor performance to continue if you are already aware of it. If your initial thought after my first paragraph was, “If they can’t handle my feedback then I don’t need them on my team”, I encourage you to continue reading. That is a boss mindset when we are trying to be leaders.
Many of you have already heard of the “Criticism Sandwich” and apply it. The idea of the sandwich method is to start and end on a positive note such as a compliment to areas of work someone excels at. This way of approaching criticism keeps things from escalating and everyone becoming upset. Before we break this down, let’s go over some major points to remember.
Set up a meeting.
Criticism should be done in a private setting. Never do it in front of other staff. Our goal is to not embarrass anyone. We simply want to help them perform better where they are lacking. You can be up front about what the meeting is about. Just say it is a performance review.
Keep it relevant.
Do not venture off track during the meeting. Do not bring up events from months ago unless they have already been coached on it before. If you are giving criticism, and bring up something you want them to fix from months ago, that will show them you had that on your mind this entire time but never once told them. That is a quick way to lose trust.
Listen
If the person who you are giving criticism to wants to have a chance to say something. An approach such as, “Okay no worries. I would like to see your point of view as well. Let me just lay out the info I have then help me understand what happened.” You want your team to feel like they are heard. Remember that the “DO WHAT I SAY” mentality is NOT the way to go. Now let’s break down how criticism should look.
Start Positive
The first moments in a meeting for criticism set the tone of how it will be received. This is the easiest thing to do as every meeting should start off on a good note. Simply greeting the person, saying you are happy to have them on the team, and listing their strengths they bring will ease their mind. It is natural for people to feel anxious and expect the worst to come. Starting this way will show them that you have been paying attention and in return you now have their full attention.
Get to the Point
Now is the prime moment to explain what you see as areas of improvement. List off SPECIFIC examples of times this has happened. YOU MUST have the data to prove your claims. This not only helps stray people from reverting to, “I didn’t do that”, but also will help them recall what may have happened that day to help think of a solution. Go over how the task should be done and do not forget to explain why it should be done that way.
End Positive
This is where we revert back to making them feel comfortable and non-defensive. We remind them of their strong points. “If you could improve here and be as good as you are at this, no one would be able to compete with you!” Show them you want to keep them as a part of your team and strengthen their career.
Remember
Criticism doesn’t have to be negative. The entire purpose of criticism is to build and strengthen others. I feel the work environment of today as correlated criticism with discipline. Once you get the hang of this method, your team will grow trust in you making future performance meetings more productive. The main thing to overcome first is to not be afraid to give criticism.
If you have no critics, you’ll likely have no success. - Malcolm X
Such an important skill to practice giving and receiving. Many of the people I work with thrive when they know they can trust leaders to give them feedback from a place of support rather than a place of attack.
The teams that succeed are the ones building each other up. The ones tearing each other down result in rubble. Thanks for showing us how our teams stand tall together, Jason! 😊