Just Say It: Performance Conversations with Defensive Employees

Just Say It

Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Tim Sackett for the TalentSpace blog, sponsored by Halogen Software. To read the complete article, check out other resources, join the conversation, and learn more about Halogen Software, please click here.

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Welcome to the “Just Say It” blog series! This series is designed to provide real-world situations we all face as leaders, and how (I believe) you should deal with them.

First, you need to understand I’m not your normal leader. I’m probably willing to try and do things you won’t, and that’s okay. My hope is you’ll be able to take parts and pieces of these posts to help you become a better performance manager of your team.

How to give a defensive employee feedback

One of the hardest things you’ll ever do is to try and manage the performance of an employee who you know will be super defensive over anything you say about their performance. Most performance management experts would traditionally break right into helping Mr. Defensive gain some self-insight and understand how they come across when they get ultra-defensive.

Remember, I’m not your traditional performance management expert.

Focus on moving defensive employees forward and putting strong bumpers around what’s expected. Tweet This!

Here’s how I would handle Mr. Defensive.

1. I would fire him.

No, really. Let’s hope you never hire anyone who is defensive by nature ‒ and that you have the ability to uncover this defective personality trait during the interview stage.

Chances are, at some point, you’re going to inherit a Mr. or Mrs. Defensive, and have to deal with managing their performance. If this is the case, and you have not yet reached the point of wanting to fire them, here’s another way to handle this type of employee:

2. Never, ever give them negative feedback.

No, really, I’m not kidding.

Here’s the main issue with an employees who become very defensive. Once you start to dive into the performance issue (no matter what it might be), they’ll shut down, and essentially stop listening to what you’re saying. At this point, you’re not managing their performance, you’re just frustrating yourself and the employee!

I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, this isn’t performance management, this is just giving up!” But, it’s not. Understanding the psychology of an employee who becomes defensive is key to driving the right behaviors you need out of them. You being critical of their performance, even in the slightest way, will continue to lead to the same end result ‒ going nowhere!

Employees who are ultra-defensive can even take neutral feedback as being negative.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

Tim is the President of HRU Technical Resources, engineering and IT staffing firm in Lansing, MI. He has 20 years of HR and recruiting background split evenly between corporate Fortune 500 gigs and third party staffing gigs. For the Halogen blog, Tim writes about the good and the bad of Talent Acquisition practices and how organizations can be smarter when it comes to acquiring, assessing, and hiring top talent.

The best performance feedback Tim ever received was that he was “unfiltered and loose in the corners.” So, buckle up – he tells it like it is – which means sometimes he calls HR and Talent Pros out on the dumb stuff we do. Catch him weekly at http://www.timsackett.com and http://fistfuloftalent.com, or call him at 517-614-5014. That’s his real cell phone number – if you call, he’ll actually pick up!

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