Affinity HR Group Q&A
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Q: We have an account manager who is a great employee but is very harsh with her direct reports. She’s good at corrective criticism but is not helping her team develop. Do you have any tips?
A: I sure do! We are very good, generally, at identifying and pointing out behavior that we want to change – otherwise known as corrective feedback. Most managers spend little to no time giving positive, behavior-reinforcing feedback. I love to recommend the Ten Penny Challenge. Ask your manager to put 10 pennies in her right-hand pocket. Tell her that her job is to give her direct reports positive feedback. Each time she does so, she places one penny from her right-hand pocket into her left pocket. Tell her that at the end of each day, it is your expectation that she will have worked all of the 10 pennies from her right pocket into her left one, thereby forcing her to focus on giving positive, supportive and effective feedback to her employees. You may want to start out with just five pennies if she’s not in practice to give positive feedback. But if she’s a true manager and managing people is her core responsibility, then working through 10 pennies a day should be her primary objective each day!
