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Working relationship with subordinates

As a manager you need to maintain a good working relationship with your subordinates to get the work done through them. At the same time you need to give feedback, which could mean course corrections to ensure that they perform at the desired levels. How good are you at conveying your point without offending the other person? You have a well cut out task on hand and that is to extract the best performance from your team. So whether you praise or criticise a team member the underlying motive is only to reinforce good performance. Here are some pointers to skillfully deliver criticism that improves performance and maintains rapport on a high note:
Follow the golden rule:
You must always remember and adhere to the golden rule- praise in public and criticise in private. It is advisable to appreciate good work in public to have an all-round positive effect. Public criticism on the other hand results in an all-round negative impact. It not only offends the receiver but the observers too. The employee perceives it as a personal insult and succeeds in gaining public sympathy. You will end up looking an offender for expressing anger in public. So it is always better to solve issues in a one on one discussion.
Never flare up:
Even in private never shout at a person to express your dissatisfaction with his work or behaviour. When you burst out in anger you often fail to make your intentions clear and this leaves the other person confused and frustrated. Reactionary response to undesirable behaviour hampers the relationship with the person concerned. It pays to maintain your cool even though you are upset by the behaviour or poor performance of your team member. Advise and not admonish to have a positive impact on a person’s behaviour and avoid hurting his feelings.
Be specific:
While giving feedback be as specific as possible. Vague criticism such as labeling a person as ‘careless’, ‘unfocussed’ or ‘unprofessional’ leaves much room for guessing. The person often fails to understand what exactly to change to become a better performer. Therefore point out the specific behavior you want your team member to change like coming late to meetings, missed timelines, absenteeism, faulty or poor quality work, or missed commitment. By being specific you focus on actual problems and suggest improvements if necessary. This approach results in more gain and less emotional pain.
Explain what you want:
Criticism in the form of ‘I don’t like this’, ‘This is not what I expect’, and ‘You got it all wrong’ do more harm than good. These statements only convey your displeasure but hardly explain what you want. You get what you want only when you ask for what you want. This is definitely not as simple as it appears. You need to put in efforts to enhance the clarity of your expectations from the team. If you can successfully engage and energise team members towards task accomplishment you can almost do away with the unpleasant task of criticism.
Clarify the context:
Always be instructive while making course corrections. Instead of accusing the person of doing something wrong, clarify the context and explain why and how a particular action needs to be done. This way he gets the point and refrains from repeating the mistake in future. Replace finger pointing with problem solving and you are sure to get the best results.Criticism to be effective should consist of clear-cut instructions. The main purpose of feedback is to build on good work and do away with undesirable behaviour. The key to success therefore lies in communicating your expectations clearly. Communicating implies not just telling what you want but also finding out if you have been understood correctly. Criticism that is less accusatory and more instructive spreads respect in the work environment. It elicits greater sense of commitment, engagement, problem ownership from the team and results in reinforcement of a good deal of positive behaviour.