Delivering Bad News Tactfully and Effectively

Delivering Bad News Tactfully and Effectively
The situation is that the office manager that must deal with an employee that has had poor performance and a record of complaints made against them. This is not the position that the manager wants to be in. After all, the employee’s are expected to have a high level of technical expertise and be excellent at the particular art of customer service. When there is an entire office that consists of ten people with that kind of professionalism, and this particular employee has a proven track record over the past two years of being able to handle the responsibilities of the job, surely the situation must be handled with sensitivity and respect to get to the bottom of what the problem is.

When the manager decides is the appropriate time to hold a meeting with the employee, the first thing to do would be to request that person come in to talk to you and for it to be a private conversation, behind a shut office door. The last thing you would want to do is create more conflict or confusion by approaching the person out in the open and allowing the other workers to hear the conversation. The delicate role of a good manager is to gain the trust and respect of your peers. The way to start this off is to use “I” statements and messages. In this way, you are using “assertive behavior as characterized by personalized communication.” (Cahn and Abigail, p.106) In this, you are showing the other person that you are taking responsibility for your part of the conversation and your feelings on the issues. This also alleviates the other person from feeling as if they need to be on the defensive. Start off by saying, “I think…, or I feel… Open up the dialogue to show the person that you need the facts and are willing to communicate the issues and be fair with the decisions that will ultimately need to be made.
A little S-TLC will be the next move to make. “The S-TLC system teaches us to stop, think, listen and then communicate with the other person. By following these four steps, we can often resolve interpersonal conflicts through basic communication skills.” (Cahn, p. 55) After you say your “I” message, like, “I am concerned about what I am hearing from the office and I think we need to talk about it…” or something like that. Then stop and allow the other person to say their side. “After we have stopped, we need to think, or analyze the situation to try to know what is really happening within it and the range of possibilities it presents.” (Cahn, p. 55) Listening with intent and consideration allows us to understand what the other person is trying to say. We may not agree with everything, but to find the underlying cause of the problem, we need to let the other person know we value what they are saying. After all, if the employee has been with the company for the past two year and previously had shown their ability to be a customer focused expert in their field, there must be something seriously wrong. Most people do not just start performing at a substandard level and be confrontational without a reason. After considering everything, it is time to communicate. “We communicate in conflict situations by stopping, thinking and listening before communicating.” (Cahn, p. 55)
By taking the time to communicate effectively, we can move towards negotiation techniques to create a win-win situation for all parties involved. “Negotiation is defined as a particular type of conflict management, characterized by an exchange of proposals and counter proposals as a means of reaching a satisfactory settlement.” (Cahn, p. 117) The preferred conflict strategy is to collaborate with the employee to resolve whatever the issue is and to get the person back on track as a star employee. Collaboration shows “mutual satisfaction and support for one another.” (Cahn, p. 81)

References
Cahn, D., Abigail, R. (2007) Managing Conflict Through Communication. Pearson Education, Inc. Boston. Pages 55, 81, 106, 117.