Let me start with the conclusion: there must be no punishment. We should coach employees to reduce the chance of making mistakes.
During the project development process, there will always be scenarios where project members make mistakes. Depending on whether the mistakes made have common characteristics, I classify the problems into two categories. Different types of mistakes require different responses.
Category 1: Common problems.
Category 2: Problems with no commonality.
Definition of commonality: A mistake made by one person many times or by multiple people.
Category 1: Common problems.
For common problems, the solution is to find ways to solve or avoid the problem at the source and through processes. Let me give you a few examples:
Many developers have their own coding habits and standards. When joining a new company, it is often easy for the submitted format to conflict with other people's submissions, and it often takes time to resolve the conflicts. To address this problem, we can require the company's coding standards to be configured in the editor before coding, and the problem will be solved.
There are also some common common problems that other departments will encounter when using it, and the ideas for solving such problems are the same. Avoid problems from the source. Let me give you an example of customer service. Our customer service sometimes misses the "s" in https when sending URLs to customers, which causes some customers to be unable to open them. Although we can provide training to customer service to solve such problems. But a better way is to make the development compatible with http access, and it would be more friendly to jump directly to https. After all, customers sometimes forget to enter s when typing it themselves.
Category 2: Problems with no commonality.
For this type of problem, the solution is to ask questions to make employees aware of the problem, and then work together to develop a solution. Of course, there are some minor issues that managers don’t need to take too seriously. Not all problems are worth the effort to correct, especially after new employees join the company, they will always make some small problems that you have not thought of. This is normal. Just give the manager a little reminder.
Some managers are particularly afraid of employees making mistakes, so they don't let employees make their own decisions on many things. This is a very wrong approach. For jobs where risks are controllable, employees should be allowed to make their own decisions so that they can get real feedback. Making mistakes is the only way to grow.
Of course there are many problems that we cannot predict before they happen. We can only prevent such problems beforehand or improve afterward. Precaution is to make it clear that the behavior of company employees must comply with laws and regulations, ethical principles, and company values. Post-event improvement means that managers should help employees find ways to prevent such problems from happening again.
When employees make mistakes, it is easy for us to think of a scenario: criticism.
If an employee makes a mistake, should the manager criticize him?
Of course. However, before criticizing, we need to understand what is the purpose of criticism? Why make such a criticism? In fact, I just talked about it. The purpose of managers' criticism is to find ways to prevent similar problems from happening again.
Many managers today criticize in the wrong way. Good managers can make employees better and better through criticism. On the contrary, employees who criticize poorly may leave.
How should managers criticize employees?
There are two explanations for criticism in modern Chinese dictionaries
1. Point out the advantages or disadvantages.
2. Specifically refers to analyzing shortcomings and errors and putting forward negative opinions.
Explain that criticism itself is not derogatory. My understanding of criticism is: criticism ≠ blame ≈ guidance. In other words: criticism is for better guidance. Mentoring is about getting better work results.
Criticism is not to tell the other person what is wrong, but to tell the other person what is right. It's not about trying to convince the other person, but trying to make the other person better.
Therefore, we make criticism based on the mentality of guidance. The specific steps are as follows:
1. Definition problem
As a leader, you need to collect information first and analyze what the problem is? What caused the problem, and what are the supporting facts?
What needs to be noted here is that the problem defined before communication is not necessarily the right one. This information only supports you to go to the parties to verify the problem.
2. Choose communication environment
Based on problem analysis, select the communication environment. Most communications regarding personal issues should be done privately, one-on-one. Even if there are common problems that need to be discussed in front of the team, they should be communicated one-on-one privately before speaking to the team, and the problems and solutions should be highlighted when speaking. It’s not about what mistakes someone made, but what problems we discovered and what methods we can use to avoid them.
3. Reach a consensus
If you have one-on-one communication in the workplace, something will definitely happen. So you might as well speak up after meeting. I noticed a problem in your recent work. What is the problem? Next, ask the other person, I want to hear your opinion on this issue. If what he said is consistent with your analysis, then the next step is counseling and working out a solution together. If what he said is inconsistent with your analysis, you need to continue to guide the other person through questions to help the other party re-understand their problem.
For example, you analyze that the problem this time is a problem with his attitude, but what he perceives is a problem with the company's process, resulting in information asymmetry. He didn't know some information, and he didn't know who to ask for cooperation or help, which ultimately led to problems. At this time, what you have to do is not to express your own point of view, but to guide the other party to understand your solution through rhetorical questions. For example: If you think this is the cause of the problem, have you tried any methods to solve it? Is there any result? If not tried, why? After both parties have a certain basic consensus on the problem, you can analyze the problem from your perspective.
"What is the problem I see", "This is how I understand the problem", "I see how you do it", "I think I can help you from these aspects", "Do you have Any other ideas?”
4. Develop solutions
Practice is the only criterion for testing truth. Solutions must be specific and implementable. It was jointly formulated by both parties based on consensus. Maybe the problem this time was due to his attitude, and he didn't care about the matter. There is also the problem of information asymmetry. Then you can let him come up with improvement plans, such as formulating daily feedback so that things can be completed on the same day. At the same time, establish operating procedures to prevent carelessness from causing problems again. The leader has to do more to complement his solutions than to provide them. Make what I want him to do into what he wants to do.
5. Review
The purpose of review determines the effects of actions. We make improvements/growth visible. Therefore, a review should be conducted every once in a while, and positive feedback and encouragement should be given if the performance is good. If the performance is not good, the reasons should be found out and new changes should be made. Don't expect the same behavior to get different results.
Things managers should note in criticism situations:
First, managers should not tell employees one thing but do another thing themselves. Guiding employees means that managers use their own behavior to influence their employees' behavior.
Second, don’t communicate with emotions. Human behavior affects behavior, and so do emotions. If you find that your mood is not right, it would be better to communicate at another time.
Third, don’t settle old scores. If you have any problems, you should communicate in time. After a long time, many memories will be blurred. The behavior of rehashing old scores will only deepen the conflict and think that you are looking for trouble.
Fourth, discuss matters as they arise and do not insult employees’ personality. Don't use bad words or make personal attacks.
Fifth, pay attention to individuals. The problem is based on oneself, not comparing with other colleagues. You can't hold everyone to the same standards as the sales champion. The so-called improvement goals should also be attainable in one jump.
How should you respond as someone being criticized?
First, face the problem bravely instead of denying it, avoiding it or covering it up.
Second, focus on solving the problem. Think more about ways to avoid problems.
Thirdly, we should take seriously the opinions and views put forward by our superiors. If we don’t agree with something, we can ask a few more questions and why? Consensus is not persuasion, but recognition from the bottom of the heart.
Finally, take the initiative to turn your solution into an executable plan, and set up several feedback points to let your superiors see your changes.
To sum up, when a problem occurs, if we can find its common points, we can solve or avoid the problem through process improvement at the source. If we can't find commonalities, we can also guide employees to understand and solve problems.