Feedback Support and Follow-up

[00:00:00]
>> After giving the critical feedback, I mentioned the most positive outcome is you've kind of had that hard conversation and hopefully things are gonna get better. I honestly think that, I mean, letting someone go is a really tough thing to do as a manager. But I think the critical conversation where people aren't meeting expectations is absolutely the hardest thing.

[00:00:22]
But once you kinda set that level, hopefully things get better. What I like to do is make sure to give the person time to reflect and digest the feedback. Sometimes they might need the day to just kinda think it through. And maybe you do a follow-up conversation the next day or the following week.

[00:00:41]
But allowing people time to digest and reflect can be really good. They might be a little bit defensive in the moment and so you kinda wanna let them sit with it a bit. I really like to provide written feedback. Maybe it's not right in the moment, right after having the conversation.

[00:00:59]
It might be that next day or something, but I wanna emphasize to make sure that it's clear and that we're both hearing the same language of what needs to be fixed or addressed. Sometimes it hits harder in written communication, where people are able to be like whoa, this is critical, this is really important to my job.

[00:01:22]
I also like to have the person reflect on it and almost actually outline a plan for how they can start to meet expectations. How are they gonna address the problem that we've talked about? And this is a good area, too, for how can I help? Cuz ultimately I'm on board with helping this person get there.

[00:01:42]
We've kind of had that hard conversation, now I wanna say, all right, let's work through it. And I think it's really helpful for people to kinda think through what's their plan moving forward. Sometimes this can be scenarios where they're like, yeah, I don't wanna do anything differently. And that might be a signal that it might not be the right fit for them.

[00:02:03]
There's a lot that can come in these conversations, but having some sort of plan for it is really great. I know some companies have performance improvement plans, PIT plans. But if you don't have that, it doesn't mean that you can't kinda have some of these types of conversations in place.

[00:02:22]
And that's, like I said, that's where I'm asking, I'm a partner, I wanna be supportive. I'm not just here to crap on someone and make them feel bad or set those expectations. I wanna be there to be a partner, and how can I help? It's on the person to fix and address, but what can I do to help?

[00:02:40]
And I'm asking that question and I'm like, okay. And if I can't do something, I'm gonna tell them too, we're gonna have conversations around that. And then, I think this is really important too, is provide ongoing feedback. After a week or two of them working to address it, how's it going?

[00:02:58]
Have check-ins. Yeah, actually you're improving on this, this is really good, or, hey, wow, you're meeting expectations. Now, how does that sustain? But you wanna have the ongoing conversations. Whether it be just nudging some positive reinforcement that, wow, this is good, keep doing that, this is exactly the behavior I wanna see.

[00:03:17]
But it gives people signals in the right direction. If things aren't improving, well, prepare for what's next, right? What are the next steps? Do you have to continue giving more feedback? Is it maybe that this team's not the right fit for them? You have to think about those things as a manager.

[00:03:39]
There's no set timeline in my mind. There's probably some sort of timeline you should be thinking about. But it doesn't have to necessarily be, in a week I need to see you do this. But maybe you are thinking about that.