As a manager or owner of a small business, you are often called upon to deliver feedback to your employees.

On a good day, it will be positive feedback, which is always pleasant for everyone concerned. On a bad day you may have to give an employee negative feedback. That is never fun for you or for them, but it is essential to helping them to understand the issue, to learn from their mistakes and to motivate them and to help them to grow.

Your position in delivering negative feedback should always be positive with the intention of fixing the issue. Never approach it as trying to fix the person. How you choose to frame the discussion will make a huge impact on its outcome and its success as well as on your working relationship with the employee going forward. Remember you have facilitated this discussion so keep it honest, objective and focused on the issue. Position yourself as a neutral party. Take care to not make it a personal attack, but frame it as an authentic observation and an offer of helpful feedback. You don’t want them to become defensive and tune you out. It is important that they listen to the issue and to any constructive thoughts you can give them. The goal is to help them and to fix the issue. For example, if the issue is that the employee is always late to meetings, try something like “I’ve noticed that you’ve been late to some of our meetings lately. You are a valuable asset to this team and it’s important to the success of the project that you arrive on time to help us develop the best outcome.”

While we often think negative feedback is not welcome, studies have shown the opposite to be true. Recent surveys on giving negative feedback to employees show that 98% of employees disengage when receiving little or no feedback. And a 2014 survey from the firm Zenger Folkman found that a majority of employees agree that knowing their mistakes did more to up their performance than praise. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of respondents said “their performance would improve with more frequent and authentic appraisals from managers—even if that meant swallowing difficult news along the way.”

Here are some tips I can offer you that might help you when giving negative feedback to employees:

• Create a neutral space for the discussion that will allow enough time for both of you to fully address the issue.
• Never ambush them or deliver the criticism in a public forum.
• Keep the focus on the specific issue and their work. It is not a personal attack on them.
• Try to give them some positive, constructive feedback as well as the negative feedback during the discussion.
• Remember, your tone and body language send a message. Keep them as well as your tone controlled and positive.
• Allow them to state their point of view or reasons for their behavior.
• Be supportive and if possible, offer resources, training or other forms of help.

Negative feedback properly delivered is transformative. It can be essential for both business and for personal growth, and for developing a positive company culture

Timothy A Dimoff, CPP, Founder and President of SACS Consulting and Training Center, is a nationally recognized expert in corporate security and HR issues, with over 40 years of experience in workplace security, labor and human resource consulting to corporations, associations, religious entities, educational facilities, non-profit organizations and others.  He consults, trains and develops solutions for workplace issues including substance abuse, management training, sexual harassment, documentation procedures, liability reduction, hiring/firing, pre-employment screening, employee motivation, workplace violence, bullying, corporate investigations, internal theft, security analysis/vulnerability assessment and security measures. He provides commentary and profiling analysis for television, radio and print media worldwide.

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