The room is crowded. Your boss says, “May I have a word with you.”
Your response?
You are probably not expecting just a word, and that the “word” is not going to be one that you like. You will be headed to a private area and the day turns to other words – review, criticism, disappointing, reprimand, and a myriad of other terms.
One of the management approaches in our society attempts to balance productivity and privacy. An interesting combination.
Productivity requires cooperation. That means that people work together, talk together, advise each other and generally live public lives.
Privacy requires exclusion. That means that people work alone, talk to themselves, research for themselves and generally live private lives.
When the boss sets your work standards based on how well you perform, the performance review is often given in private. Some well intentioned performance reviews include peer feedback. Often in anonymous format. Not that helpful.
Just a management thought for this morning’s blog. How can we more effectively provide words of encouragement towards productivity? I wonder if a more public encouragement process would be in line, rather than just “a word with you.”