Which of the Three Ps do you want - Productivity, Performance or Politeness?

I have commented several times on the phenomena where a supervisor has a problem with Anne, but rather than speaking to Anne, sends out a 'To whom it may concern' memo. The result is almost always unsatisfactory - the employees who are performing satisfactory may be confused or angry that they are receiving this memo. Anne meanwhile is probably oblivious because SHE has not been called out so she can hide under the 'To whom it may concern' umbrella! So what have we achieved? NOTHING!

Why do we do this? Part of it is because we don't like confrontation. Another part is that we want to be polite and not to single out one person. This failure to call out unsatisfactory performance is so common place that recently there was a call for a public official to apologize tor calling out the non performance of another public official. The sentiment was that the one being sanctioned had been embarrassed. Tellingly, that 'embarassment' seemed to have been a greater sin than the alleged non performance!

I have for years advocated 'praise in public criticize in private' but I am about to admit the error of my ways. When we fail to criticise poor performance we subtly signal that it is okay and that in turn leads to its continuation. Others may even join the offender because after all what is there to lose? The end result is that productivity and/or performance may never improve. As Iyanla Vanzant has said we need to 'call a thing a thing'. If Anne is not performing becoming an ostrich and ignoring it will NOT lead to an improvement. Nor will telling EVERYONE to pull up their socks!

If you are a leader, then you are duty bound to LEAD. That means

• Setting clear standards
• Measuring them
• Noting deviations
• Investigating deviations
• Taking the appropriate actions

Of course this is NOT rocket science - this is a performance cycle and it has been around for decades. But too may of us use it selectively. For example. we give vague standards instead of SMART ones that would allow people to know whether they are achieving them. We have terrible measurement systems that may be unreliable, invalid or lag so far behind that they are of little use. And most of all when we do get deviations we freeze and do nothing.

Failing to confront because you don't want to single out, embarrass or deal with someone is actually a dereliction of duty. Come on leaders - it is time - use the hot stove rule, but as that shoe company would say "JUST DO IT!"