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I’d start documenting her negative performance in writing, it’s a good time to start a paper trail in case you need to escalate to a PIP or termination
Having just gone through this myself I have to say no. If the employee has decided not to work with you there isn’t anything you can do.
When I have to give coaching or constructive feedback, I start with positive feedback or with what the report has done well, then segway into outlining a procedure and expectations for the things they aren’t doing well, and let that lead into the constructive feedback such as over the past few months we’ve seen a pattern where you’ve struggled getting (insert task) completed in the timeframe needed or I’ve seen that several (insert task) continue to have errors or mistakes that after (insert time) we’d like to see a consistent level of accuracy.
I’ve recently had a report then get very upset and defensive and what I considered talking back.
So I remained calm, focused the conversation back to the Core Competencies of the role, our procedures and the expectations, truly staying factual and on topic. Reiterating the roles core responsibilities and accountability being part of my expectation for all team members. Told the report, I’ll be checking back with them to follow their progress and left it there. Don’t over talk about it.
Then they can think through on their end. Lastly I give them encouragement saying I know they can do (—- insert thing) and have faith in them and trust they will get the task under their belt.
The sandwich method is great if you can come up with two legitimately positive things at about the same level as the negative thing.
If you're stretching to come up with two positives, that struggle will come through in the sandwich, and it will 'taste' awful. Your employee WILL pick up on it, even if just intuitively, and that can damage any trust you've built up with them.
So use the sandwich when it's a good fit, but don't force it.
I has happened to me. My advice document everything and escalate the issue to HR asap. My direct report didn’t take negative feedback well and would be disrespectful every time. At the time, I wanted to help her and didn’t report her bad behavior to HR. It backfired. I learned a few months later she had been complaining about me being toxic to HR and had literally built a case against me.
One of the main things I’ve learned in my years as a leader is you can’t start talking to people about performance once it’s a problem. For this example, it might be too late to make this point but genuinely people don’t take constructive feedback well unless you’ve established a relationship with them where they feel you genuinely want to help them.
Is her work product decent? Is it worth it to try and turn it around? In my opinion it would be very hard to come back from and take a lot of effort. So have to decide if the juice is worth that squeeze
Where did you give this feedback - Was it in an annual review or in a periodic 1:1 ?
I would start by seeing if there’s an opportunity to understand her perspective a little more, she sounds angry and it could be about something totally unrelated.
Present her with the opportunity to assess from your point of view, and ask her what she thinks is the best path to a better review for next time.
I know that’s not traditional, but I use that method with both difficult and non-difficult employees and almost every time they end up seeing it how I see it and improvement follows. Heck, I end up learning something new along the way sometimes too! It even created a stronger atmosphere for future talks and teamwork.
This is an excellent tactic. Especially effective if you’ve on your own attempted to do the same exercise in reverse - approaching it from your direct report’s perspective - and can demonstrate that you’ve done so when you’re talking with them.
Good timing for this discussion as I was going to talk to my direct report about some unprofessional behavior she has been doing.. but was unsure of how to do it while keeping her motivated and happy.. will definitely tread lightly now.. good luck to you!
If it’s something you noticed did you address it immediately in a 1:1 or wait? Do you have an established relationship of trust prior to this criticism? Seems like you’re not practicing radical candor in your team and I would start there.
Sometimes it depends on the nature of the negative feedback too I think -what exactly was it?
What’s a scorched earth approach?
Happy to help 😊
I would follow-up in writing. Feedback can be hard to hear and fight/flight can be triggered. Always offer to discuss it later when they’ve had time to absorb.
I would talk to the employee and put your opinion of the reactions and the impact out for there to be no misunderstanding. When I have an employee performing poorly my first look is in the mirror then determine if this is new behavior or ongoing behavior. The obvious paths would emerge. However if the employee feels as if they can use the scorched esrth method (taking everyone down with them) I would certainly review retaliation with them while ensuring I’ve done my due diligence. Not sure that long explanation helped but the gist is tell the employee what you feel is going on and attempt to get the real reason this is happening. And if the issue performance be sure to be clear with what the employee is failing at so they can’t disregard it as opinions.
I have used the approach of telling what my expectations are for the whole team and ask the report if they were the supervisor, how would they set me up for success and also, how would they handle me if I reacted the way they did, or fell short of those expectations?