I recently completed Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence. It is an excellent, classic work that everyone in the workforce, whether you are a pastor, minister, CEO, mid-level manager, or frontline employee, could benefit from reading. The below is an excerpt that discusses how to best critique someone that you oversee:
“Harry Levinson, a psychoanalyst turned corporate consultant, gives the following advice on the art of the critique, which is intricately entwined with the art of praise:
1. Be specific
Pick a significant incident, an event that illustrates a key problem that needs changing or a pattern of deficiency, such as the inability to do certain parts of a job well. It demoralizes people just to hear that they are doing “something” wrong with knowing what they specifics are so they can change. Focus on the specifics, saying what the person did well, what was done poorly, and how it could be changed. Don’t beat around the bush or be oblique or evasive; it will muddy the real message.
2. Offer a solution
The critique, like all useful feedback, should point to a way to fix the problem. Otherwise it leaves the recipient frustrated, demoralized, or demotivated. The critique may open the door to possibilities and alternatives that the person did not realize were there, or simply sensitize her to deficiencies that need attention — but should include suggestions about how to take care of those problems.
3. Be present
Critiques, like praise, are most effective face to face and in private. People who are uncomfortable giving a criticism — or offering praise — are likely to ease the burden on themselves by doing it at a distance, such as a memo. But this makes the communication too impersonal, and robs the person of receiving it of an opportunity for a response or clarification.
4. Be sensitive
This is a call for empathy, for being attuned to the impact of what you say and how you say it on the person at the receiving end. Managers who have little empathy, Levison points out, are most prone to giving feedback in a hurtful fashion, such as the withering put-down. The net effect of such criticism is destructive; instead of opening the way for a corrective, it creates an emotional backlash of resentment, bitterness, defensiveness, and distance.”
Goleman’s words can summarized into this: “Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them” (Luke 6:31 HCSB). Leaders must critique when needed. It is part of their responsibility. But a leader’s critique should be done in love and in full respect of the employee. Put yourself in their shoes. Critique others in the same manner that you would want to be critiqued.
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