Compliment as often as you correct...

Life can sometimes feel unfair. Adding up the accomplishments and setbacks often doesn’t seem balanced. 

 

·      Compliments and

·      Constructive advice

·      Should go hand in hand.

·      It often feels like they don’t.

 

Managers too often are encouraged to focus only on documenting poor performance: they seem primed to catch errors, to act like McGruff the Crime Dog. For most employees, simple reminders and coaching are enough to get them back on track. But here’s a better idea: encourage managers to balance correcting errors with catching employees doing things right: by doing that, managers will be seen as fair and balanced in their approach to supervision.  My company encouraged managers to give out multiple commendations for every time they had to take corrective action – again, showing employees that they were attentive to the good and bad. We recognized the managers who did that the most, showing our support for fair, balanced, and effective employee relations. All feedback from supervisors is good, especially when it’s objective balanced. As always, commend publicly and correct privately. Make sure your employees feel your commendations as deeply as they feel your corrective actions today.

 

James Clear is an author, blogger, speaker, and noted expert on habits and decision making. He wrote the NY Times bestselling book Atomic Habits.