In this interactive 3-hour workshop, participants will:

• Review the common human responses to workplace drama.
• Gain insight into your typical approach to workplace conflict. 
• Experience a model for non-defensive communication.
• Explore ways to overcome the psychological, physiological and emotional barriers that keep us from living drama free.

Logistics: Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 9am-12pm, main Seattle Public Library

Register for this $99 workshop today.

The squishy stuff is critical to any employee’s success and yet managers frequently delay addressing performance problems that are squishy–because, well, they’re squishy.  Hard to define, hard to address, hard to solve for.

When I had a staff of 65, I never had difficulty addressing performance problems with my staff when the issue was cut and dry: missing a deadline, work quality where hard metrics were involved, attendance or punctuality issues that had a negative impact.  The squishy stuff was always harder. 

Here are some tips for addressing the squishier issues that create business problems in the workplace.

• Thoughtfully name the issue and describe the impact.
• Recognize that you don’t have to be able to solve the problem for the employee.  Your job as the manager is to…
• Bring the issue to the employee’s attention and shift the responsibility for improvement onto their shoulders.
• Focus on the required change, the required outcome.

Thoughtfully name the issue and describe the impact

Put some effort into defining the issue.  Squishy issues require more thinking to define well  It’s also important that you speak to the impact.  Here are some examples:

Recognize that you don’t have to be able to solve the employee’s problem for them

Anger management?  Credibility with senior staff?  Poor relationship building skills?  How can you solve for that for another person.  While it’s great if you can offer the employee some possible solutions: an in-house training workshop, free counseling through the EAP, it’s not your job to have a solution as much as it is your job to point out the gaps between actual and expected performance, make it clear that the gap needs to be closed, and shift that responsibility onto the shoulder’s of the employee in question. 

Shift the responsibility for improvement onto your staff member’s shoulders by focusing on the required change or outcomes

Here are some examples of how you can focus on the desired change:

In conclusion, while managers frequently shy away from addressing the squishier issues, they can be as important, and sometimes more important, than those performance issues that can be described using hard data.  It’s important for managers to demonstrate the necessary managerial courage and take the time to think through how to present these issues.  The sooner you can shift the responsibility for improvement onto the appropriate shoulders–your staff member’s–the better for you, for that staff member, for the team, and for the organization as a whole.