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Looking for What’s Valuable

One Step Change Works Best

Feedback – The Most Golden of Rules

It’s funny how theory comes back to get you in the end. After so many years of reminding those in positions of authority that there are some vital rules for feedback, it takes just one occasion to show the real value of the advice.

It was a sunny morning in my local chain coffee-shop. The guy behind the counter was efficient and effective at his job and we’d shared a bit of a conversation the few times that I’d been there.

It wasn’t busy at all – in fact I walked straight to the counter to be served right away – so there was no clear reason for the behavior that followed.

The old days where you could get your coffee straight over the counter have long gone, so I moved along past the gap in the counter, to wait for my first caffeine/chocolate hit of the day.

A young lad appears next to me – clearly one of the employees there – and approaches the guy who had served me. I see my server’s name badge now and he’s got ‘Manager’ on there as well as his name.

Then the tirade begins. The manager isn’t overly loud – and yet we still can all hear him. The conversation doesn’t last for more than 20 seconds, tops.

‘You’re late again. Where’s your apron?’ The employee makes a small excuse, clearly embarrassed. ‘You said you would be 10 minutes and now it’s been 20 – AND you’ve come without your apron’.

Silence all round.

Everyone in the coffee-shop is watching, holding their breath as the scene unfolds. The manager is aggressive and in the face of the employee – even while he’s still serving the next customer.

‘Get in the back and get working’, is the final input from the manager.

Employees need to work in disciplined ways, there’s no doubt about that. When we manage people, we have to demonstrate that we too are disciplined in our own manner with them.

That ‘most golden of rules’? Well, think of this. It’s OK (when the individual concerned is OK with it), to give praise and positive feedback publicly.

And giving negative feedback is a different matter. It needs to be timely, proportional, relate to behaviors and, above all, discreetly (this usually means in private).

For anyone who manages, or leads a team of others, this is the only way. Or you run the risk of losing the respect of your people, as well as potentially losing customers too.

I will probably go back there soon for my next medio/mocha/skinny/no-foam/extra hot/to go.

But I didn’t the next day.

Just Do It – Make that Decision!

The Value of Questions

Just Ask Your People – Easy As That

‘What’s going on, my team just don’t seem motivated to do their work’

The conversation was with Jim, one of my newer supervisors. There had been a few hints that there were problems and today, it finally came to a head.

‘Why do you think that is?’ was the best response I could think of in the moment. A response that wasn’t just a sympathetic groan. Nor words that only deflected the issue simply away from me to him, however easy that might have been.

‘Well, I don’t know’, he said, almost immediately.

There was the clue I needed – the opportunity to be a firm manager, completely focused on the business end of things, whilst recognizing that sometimes, a bit of a tough question was vital to keep the people on their toes.

‘How could you find out’, I mused further, trying to help out there a little, knowing that in this few seconds, Jim either was going to have a bigger challenge, or it was the ‘light-bulb’ moment I hoped for.

If Jim had become stuck here, I would have needed to delve deeper down in my own resolve of patience and resistance to the temptation merely to fix it for him by giving direction. As a manager, I am good at fixing things, because so often I’ve been there and done it.

Fortunately, I also know within myself that I have that tendency, so I waited for a while, maybe 20 seconds even, for Jim to respond.

That light bulb lit up brilliantly!

‘I guess I could ask them’, he finally said.

Now was the time to encourage and enthuse about this great idea. Time to help Jim realize that he already had some of the answers that would work most effectively for him and the team.

And that yes, he did have more of the better solutions ready and waiting in him, rather than wait for me – the smart guy – to come up with them.