Help employees learn from mistakes

It can be frustrating when an employee is not performing well or makes a mistake. But instead of expressing your stress and anger and reprimanding the person, a better approach is to show compassion and curiosity. Suspending judgment, taking time to understand what happened and coaching the employee for the future will build loyalty and trust, which can then turn around performance. An angry response, on the other hand, erodes loyalty and trust and inhibits creativity by jacking up the employee’s stress levels. So first, get a handle on your emotions. Take time to reflect on how you’re feeling so you can give a more thoughtful, reasonable and discerned response.

(Adapted from Why Compassion Is a Better Managerial Tactic Than Toughness, by Emma Seppälä)

Working over the weekend

“I’ll get that done over the weekend” shouldn’t be our go-to solution for the work we can’t fit in during the week. To preserve the much-needed break that the weekend offers, try front-loading your week. Since unexpected tasks will always come up, no matter how hard you try to plan your work, you want to fully book your schedule at the beginning of the week so you can leave more open space on your calendar as the week progresses. Ideally half of Friday should be reserved to tie up loose ends. You can also avoid the trap of answering emails on the weekend by blocking out designated times each day to work through your inbox. And when you commit to doing something fun on the weekend, it’s much easier to set priorities so that you can leave on Friday work-free.

(Adapted from How to Plan Your Week to Keep Your Weekend Free, by Elizabeth Grace Saunders)

An emotional outburst

People have emotional outbursts every now and then. But if you have a team member who’s particularly prone to them, you should anticipate behaviour like crying or screaming to prevent these situations from stalling your team’s productivity. Watch for the telltale signs that something is causing concern. When you notice someone is withdrawing eye contact or getting red in the face, acknowledge what you see: “Steve, you’ve stopped midsentence a couple of times now. What’s going on?” Listen carefully to the response, both to what is said and what you can infer from his body language. Angry (leaning in, clenched jaw or fists) looks very different from discouraged (dropping eye contact, slumping) or dismissive (rolling eyes, turning away). Finally, ask questions to get to the root of his emotion: “I get the sense you’re frustrated. What’s behind your frustration?” Afterward, you should see some sort of relief.

(Adapted from Handling Emotional Outbursts on Your Team, by Liane Davey)

Facilitate an effective performance review

Before you sit down with your employee for his performance review, you should write down your feedback in a way that will facilitate an effective discussion. Record your observations about the employee’s job performance as objectively as possible, and tie your conclusions to hard data. Provide evidence of progress (or lack thereof) by connecting accomplishments with established goals: “Derek increased sales by 7pc, which exceeded his goal of 5pc.” The more information you give, the more likely the employee will be able to strengthen positive behaviours and correct negative ones. Include specific examples. Just make sure you express observations as neutral facts, not judgments, when giving negative feedback. For example, instead of saying, “Theo doesn’t know how to talk to difficult customers,” which infers a lack of knowledge instead of a skill that can be improved, say, “Theo received five complaints from dissatisfied customers.”

(Adapted from How to Document a Performance Review, by HBR)

Make networking easier

The benefits of networking — meeting new people and learning interesting new ideas — are invaluable. But if you, like many others, hate having to initiate awkward conversations with strangers, find an approach that makes you comfortable. Try:

• Bringing a friend. When you have a ‘wingman’ to help highlight your accomplishments at events, it can give you the confidence you need to approach others. Just avoid spending the entire evening talking to that person.

• Preparing a few opening lines. Develop a few questions to help you kick-start a dialogue: What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now? How do you spend most of your time? How did you hear about the event?

• Researching in advance. It’s easier to talk to someone if they don’t feel like a stranger.

(Adapted from Networking When You Hate Talking to Strangers, by Dorie Clark)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 31st, 2015

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