Have you ever avoided a conversation to maintain harmony? Many business owners and managers indicate they postpone giving feedback or addressing performance issues with employees due to discomfort with conflict, being too busy, or believing the team will not be significantly affected.
However, keeping the peace can negatively impact your bottom line. Here’s how:
- When underperformers go unchecked, your top performers notice and may disengage or leave. Turnover creates a cost for recruiting, replacing, and retraining a new team member.
- Your frustration with the underperformer can grow, affecting trust, rapport, and relationships with others.
- Allowing continued performance that falls short of expectations creates a perception that everything is acceptable, leading to confusion, defensiveness, and mistrust when the issue is finally addressed.
- Continued substandard performance may also impact your client experience and loyalty.
To become more comfortable with giving feedback, consider shifting your mindset to view feedback as an investment in your employee’s development rather than a conflict.
Regular, honest discussions about employee performance – both positive and constructive – creates trust and rapport with your team members. Feedback becomes more of a conversation instead of your team member feeling like they are being sent to the principal’s office only when something goes wrong.
And, creating a collaborative environment when defining next steps for enhancing or redirecting their performance provides direction. Explaining how their performance relates to their long-term career goals shows your support for their success.
If you would like to learn more about confidently creating collaboration and clarity with your performance management discussions, let’s schedule a virtual Connection Call here.
