Human Resources:
Combat Defensiveness When Addressing Employees' Problem Behavior
Published on Tue Jul 12, 2011
Use clear, strong communication to keep your troublemakers on track. You may have a worker who is consistently late to work or misses her deadlines. How can you discuss the situation and suggest improvement in a manner that inspires cooperation? "It's a matter of making people want to improve," says Thomas Connellan, former research associate and professor at the University of Michigan. "And the only way to do this is to address [the problem behavior] in a manner that inspires people. If you do not have a methodology for doing this effectively, the problem will fester. The worst thing that can happen is that you don't address the issue and it continues or gets worse." Connellan says there are five keys to effective communication that will result in a positive resolution to an issue: 1. Define the issue. Before you ask the first question, state the performance issue matter-of-factly. Don't [...]