“Admonishing”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
I once had a boss who said, “I welcome controversy in order to resolve it.” And that guy was fearless with respect to taking on challenging business and interpersonal issues in the workplace; he didn’t just talk it, he walked it.
Many employees offer tremendous value, commitment, loyalty, and work ethic to the organization. But many also may have one or two niggling issues which on rare occasion outshine their positive traits and, eventually, scream out to be addressed by the team leader.
If you’ve been keeping up with your obligation as a leader and mentor to “catch them doing something right” frequently, daily, and on an ongoing basis, then you have the right and the obligation to step in and address this valued employee’s issue.
No decent leader relishes the responsibility to deal with some tough, disruptive issues in the workplace, especially in a valuable, respected team mate. But the good leader “welcomes controversy in order to resolve it.”
It’s been said thousands of times to lead with a positive, follow with correction, and finish with another positive. However, if the only time the person ever hears a positive from you is right before the correction, it will be predictable, and dubious at best. In other words, it will be perceived as a feeble, deceptive, management tool and you will be regarded as disingenuous—in short, a poor leader.
Instead, if you’ve been diligent—and genuine—in your regular and frequent acknowledgement of each team mate’s valued efforts and contribution, then the opening positive will instead be accepted for what it is: a genuine compliment. This point is potent and dense: if they hear and accept the opening compliment, they are open and willingly vulnerable to the admonishment in the interest in making themselves and the team better. On the other hand, if they hear empty platitudes used only to get quickly from the “carrot” through to the “stick”, they won’t respect the intention of the corrective intervention, they won’t welcome it, and they won’t respond out of willing cooperation but instead out of begrudging toleration of an inept boss.
Perhaps the broader point is this: the management books all got it right. But if the methods promoted in the best-selling management book du jour are used simply as superficial methods to puppet employees into thoughtless compliance, you will get a result commensurate to your inconsequential investment. Conversely, if you invest in people as valuable, and flawed, and respect-worthy contributors, all through the day, week, and year, those very same suggested methods can steer you away from managerial missteps and toward hard-won leadership prowess.