Every boss has to lay down the law sooner or later. While policies and their effects are usually reviewed prior to implementation, you won’t always know whether or not employees are going to like them or even follow them. If you know your people, you might already have a pretty good idea. Either way, sometimes you’ll find yourself in a position where you have to communicate or enforce unpopular decisions. You’ve just become the bad guy. So, how can you soften the blow?
The most important part of enforcing an unpopular decision is helping your employee to understand the reasoning behind it. Unless you’re in the sort of environment where your team immediately defaults to “How high?” when you suggest they jump, you’ll probably find employees a lot more bought in when you can explain why you’re cracking down on them. Although they may not be happy about it or even agree that it’s justified, they’ll be a lot more receptive, and a lot more likely to listen, if they’re satisfied that they understand where you’re coming from.
Frequently, management reacts to staff behavior with decisions or policy changes that employees may not expect or receive well. Some examples of this can be disciplinary action, restriction of privileges and removal of job perks. Sometimes it’s sharing a disappointing performance review score. When a member of your team isn’t performing adequately and you’ve already exhausted developmental and constructive tactics, it might be time to switch the carrot out for the stick. Is it possible to do this without just being a jerk?
It sure is. First of all, don’t get personal. After all, the employee in question may be very nice, and somehow just got it wrong this time. Focus on the undesirable actions that specifically led to the need for your policing. Be clear about what was done that shouldn’t have been, or what needed to happen but didn’t. Go over the policy that was violated or the goal that was not met so your employee understands what exactly it was that they did, or failed to do, that let you down.
Discuss the impact that your subordinate’s behavior is having on your desired results or performance. Is her constant tardiness forcing the work load to shift onto her peers, causing them undue stress and maybe some decline in quality? Maybe your business requires extraordinary attention to detail, and her struggles in this area are driving your clients bonkers when they see what she’s done to their marketing brochure.
Find out how your employee thinks she’s doing and the thought process behind her behavior. Get her re-engaged by asking what she could have done differently or better now that you’ve discussed what’s going on and and the repercussions, as well as the path toward improvement. You may still have to enforce tough consequences, but you won’t come across as such a bad guy.
When was the last time you had to be “the bad guy” to someone you supervised? How did it go? Please feel free to contribute to the discussion in the comments section! If you’ve enjoyed spending a few minutes reading “The Boss Perspective,” subscribe and share this site with your friends, Like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter @BossPerspective.
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