The Best Managers Are Nice

Nice managers are the best managers. I used to think I was nice. I wasn’t. I might’ve been liked, but I wasn’t nice. Let me explain. Years ago, as a new store manager for Guitar Center, a big box music retailer, I hired Steve. Steve was a good kid but was late to work a lot. For some reason, he was not responding to my passive aggressive comments or sarcasm about his tardiness. One day, I got fed up and fired him. While I was handing Steve his final check, he looked me dead in the eyes and said, “How come you never told me that being late would cost me my job?” Gulp. Not nice.

While candor without empathy can be cruelty, being honest with people, especially when their behavior needs improvement is nice. When straight-talk (with empathy) is not working, setting expectations in writing is nice. Corrective action is a tool to help others improve. Seeing something in writing makes behavior, and the need to correct it, real, and lets the person know that their behavior is getting in the way of their success. Corrective action doesn’t always work but, if matched with great dialogue, provides the best opportunity to do so. Without it, employees are left with verbal coaching only, or no coaching at all.

Corrective action is also an effective tool against claims of retaliation and discrimination. Being able to prove that training took place insulates a manager, and a company, from claims that an adverse action took place for illegal reasons.?No, we didn’t fire John because he was 58 years old, we fired him because after being coached, verbally and in writing, not to raise his voice at colleagues, he proceeded to yell at a co-worker in front of clients.

Often portrayed as a paper trial to get someone fired, corrective action has a bad reputation. In the hands of an inexperienced manager this reputation can be well deserved. This need not be the case. Corrective action is a great tool to explicitly communicate expectations, actions to speed improvement, and outcomes. When used appropriately, and in a timely fashion, corrective action is quite literally a fantastic way to correct action (behavior).

Helping others become successful, building them up, is the most rewarding part of managing others. Helping people out the door, tearing them down, is the least rewarding part of managing others. Candor with empathy is a powerful leadership tool. Written corrective action is this tool made tangible. Candor and corrective action are nice.

You are not being mean when you tell someone that their performance is lacking, or that their continued behavior will lead to their dismissal. You are not being mean when you issue a corrective action document, even one with a teeth clause. It’s the opposite, in that the use of honesty and corrective action is nice. It’s nice to let others know where they stand. It’s nice to communicate exactly how someone can improve. It’s nice to warn others about the consequences of their continued behavior. It’s nice for terminating employees to understand why they are being let go, and it was nice that they had the opportunity to improve. The best managers are nice.

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