Corrective Feedback/Coaching for Resolution

You don't criticize anyone on the job anymore.  You provide corrective feedback or you coach for resolution, or whatever the current jargon is.  Despite most supervisors feeling uncomfortable in doing it, employees want it.  They sincerely want to perform well, to contribute positively to the company's mission and to be the best version of themselves.  Despite the term you use, there is a right way and a wrong way to provide constructive criticism/whatever tern you want to use.  

That was high-lighted for me in a conversation I had with my friend, Jane.  Jane was asked into a manager's office.  The manager talked about her positive contributions to her team and talked about how much he enjoyed working with her.  He then said she would be even more outstanding if ....... and then he ended it by saying how valuable she was to her team and he noticed her extra work and initiative in covering for a colleague.  She was sincerely grateful for the feedback.  She thanked him profusely.  He didn't ask her to come up with a plan to address the deficiency but she came up with one on her own.  She went back and talked to him about her plan and asked if he would monitor her and give her feedback on how she was implementing his recommendation.  She was inspired and an engaged employee.  

She was working her toochie off when she was summoned to a different manager's office.  This one had a different approach.  She started with the negative.  Jane said that Rod had already talked to her about it and she was working on a plan to do better.  The manager didn't listen and literally hammered Jane with examples of things she did wrong.   She raised her voice, she threatened her with threats that were meaningless, and kept repeating herself.  Apparently, her goal in the interaction was not to help Jane improve her performance but to make her cry.  Jane did cry but in the bathroom afterwards.  She was too proud to give that manager the satisfaction.  The manager also did not give Jane any credit for the changes she had already made.  

This may shock you but the second manager's feedback was not motivating for Jane.  Actually, just the opposite.  Jane withdrew and took a mental holiday from work even though she was present at her desk.  She started playing games on her phone and started to be the worthless employee that she felt.  She disengaged.  

That was last week.  I know Jane very well.  She has a strong work ethic and a high degree of personal responsibility.  She will rebound and go back to being the outstanding team player that she has been.  

Platitudes are simple common sense solutions to problems.  They have lasted so long because there is a lot of truth in them.  In this case, you really can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.