Ensure Your Criticism is Effective

• 00:04 If you really want to make sure your criticism is coming across well,
• 00:08 here's what I recommend.
• 00:10 Before you deliver the criticism,
• 00:12 this whole conversation with the employee, or the colleague in question,
• 00:18 I would recommend you practice in advance on video.
• 00:22 Now, I'm not suggesting you go spend a lot of time hire a TV crew,
• 00:26 all I'm suggesting is, pretend that person is sitting across from you.
• 00:31 Hold your cell phone and record the video, or it could be a web, could be any camera.
• 00:37 But I do want you to see yourself, and hear yourself, and
• 00:41 let's actually practice what you're going to say.
• 00:46 Because there's some things in your own mind when you're thinking,
• 00:50 that seemed perfectly straightforward, non threatening neutral.
• 00:55 But when you hear yourself saying it, re watch yourself saying and
• 00:59 you're like, my gosh, that's harsh, that's brutal, that's ugly.
• 01:04 I would hate it if someone told me that.
• 01:08 You don't have to guess, you can practice on video and watch it, so
• 01:11 that's my advice to you.
• 01:13 If you want a note or two that's fine, it shouldn't be that complicated.
• 01:18 But certainly if you have notes for all the good things that person is doing,
• 01:22 no one's offended by using notes when they're hearing praise,
• 01:26 I want you to practice your whole talk with them.
• 01:29 Say, Bill, I need to talk to you about a couple of things if we could sit and
• 01:33 chat for a moment, and then hop right into it.
• 01:36 And I realized it's just practice, there's no one else in the room, but
• 01:41 try to do it as if you're actually talking to the employee.
• 01:45 Bring up the issue, talk about all the strengths, focus on the specific problem,
• 01:51 focus on the very specific things you need to do to change to improve it.
• 01:56 And then by putting it all in the positive context of the good things will
• 02:01 happen once this problem will soon be solved.
• 02:04 And I want you to videotape the whole thing, and
• 02:08 I need you to watch it, I need you to critique yourself.
• 02:12 And then look, what is it you like about how you're coming across?
• 02:15 Do you seem empathetic?
• 02:17 Do you seem caring?
• 02:18 Do you seem like you really want to do this to help the person?
• 02:23 Be objective, or do you seem like a jerk?
• 02:26 Do you seem like someone who enjoys beating someone up and criticizing them?
• 02:31 I hope not.
• 02:33 I doubt that's how you're going to come across,
• 02:35 otherwise you wouldn't even bother spending time in a course like this.
• 02:39 But look at, do you seem believable?
• 02:42 Are you undercutting your own message by sounding timid, and
• 02:47 scared, and nervous about this?
• 02:50 But this isn't you giving a speech to 2000 people, but
• 02:53 you do want to come across as comfortable, believable, and confident.
• 02:57 So I want you to practice on video, make notes of what you like, notes of what you
• 03:01 don't like, and ideally you feel a lot more comfortable after that.
• 03:06 If you don't really love how you're coming across, I need you to do it again.
• 03:13 Keep practicing your message, the criticism you want to deliver,
• 03:20 keep watching it on video until you like it.
• 03:25 Because if you do that you'll be more relaxed, you'll certainly be more
• 03:29 confident how you deliver this message, and things will go smoother.
• 03:33 So, it shouldn't take that long, but if it's a two minute message and you practice
• 03:37 it ten times and watch it ten times, that's really not going to take very long.
• 03:42 That only takes you 40 minutes if it's really important.
• 03:47 So again, practice, record it, watch it, critique it,
• 03:50 keep doing it until you like it.
• 03:52 Do that and you're going to be in great shape for this conversation,
• 03:57 even if it's not the most pleasant of conversations.
• 04:01 Thanks for joining me for this course on how to deliver criticism in the workplace.
• 04:06 Nobody really enjoys criticism for criticism sake, but if you really want to
• 04:10 help people, you want to help improve people, people who work for you,
• 04:15 your own employees, your colleagues, even your bosses.
• 04:18 If you want to help them, you're going to have to give
• 04:22 honest feedback that sometimes involves criticism.
• 04:25 I hope this course has given you some tools to do it effectively.
• 04:29 In a way if the criticism goes down well, and the person you're criticizing,
• 04:36 actually benefits, they learn, they become better.
• 04:40 They think more highly of themselves, and of you if, you handle it right.
• 04:46 Thanks for joining me, and good luck with all of your tough workplace conversations.

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