Factor in Health, Personal, and Family Problems
Michelle is one of your most promising subordinates, and now there is a great opportunity for her to develop her skills and advance her career. You would like to put her in charge of training in a particular system at your field locations around the country. The position requires traveling two days a week. When you present this idea to her, Michelle bursts into tears.
When you give Michelle a chance to talk, you find out that she is in the process of moving her mother into a nursing home. This is a terribly difficult situation because the mother expected that Michelle would quit work to care for her. Michelle has had her eye on that training and traveling opportunity, and it seems to her a cruel fate that it has come along at the very time when she must devote extra time to her mother and can't even consider overnight trips.
Be prepared to have unexpected information crop up in feedback situations.
Stresses and problems outside of work contribute to how people perform at work. When you know about temporary difficulties, you can adjust the timing and content of your feedback accordingly. But you must also be prepared to have unexpected information crop up in feedback situations.
Draw on Your Subordinate's Problem-Solving Abilities
Marcus has brilliant analytical and technical skills, but putting him on the sales team has not worked out well. At meetings where he must present technical information to customer teams, he is losing sales. He bombards the customers with far more information than they want or need and throws technical jargon around right and left. During those meetings his actions strike you as arrogant and insensitive. He doesn't look people in the eye. You give Marcus this specific feedback, with the idea that he, like you, will conclude that he should be removed from the sales team, even though he volunteered for that assignment.
Marcus surprises you. He is very interested in sticking with this assignment and learning to get it right. Learning how to present technical information effectively to nontechnical people is high on his personal-development agenda. He's also quite aware of the negative impact of his behavior, and he's already taking some steps to improve. He's working through a self-teaching book on presentation skills. He would like you to suggest other resources that would help him get up to speed quickly on these skills.
People who are motivated to do well in their work often can come up with their own solutions to problems you bring to their attention.
People who are motivated to do well in their work often can work out their own solutions to problems you bring to their attention. In giving feedback, you should give them that opportunity before telling them how you propose to fix the problem. The solution the subordinate works out will not feel like a punishment to him or her and may well suit his or her personality and style better than any solution you could devise.