Taylor Swift, the billionaire pop icon, is famous for sending her fans secret messages in just about everything she does or says.
In fact, her recent appearance on New Heights, the Kelce brothers’ podcast, had fans convinced that she is going to be performing at this years’ Super Bowl halftime show. The theory goes as follows: Swift stated that she had recently gotten on the sourdough bandwagon and thinks about sourdough “60% of the time”.
Super Bowl 60 is being played in San Francisco, where the team mascot is Sourdough Sam. So, she must be the halftime performer, right?! If that wasn’t enough to convince you, Taylor stated that Jason Kelce yelled for “47 seconds” and Levi Stadium, where the Super Bowl is being played, was the 47th stop on her Eras Tour.
The only “obvious” conclusion is that we will be having a Life of a Showgirl halftime show! How can you not see it?
And while speaking in code and dropping Easter eggs may work to get the Swifties excited, such tactics are a disaster when it comes to giving employees feedback about their performance.
All too often we hear from supervisors about how an employee “should have known” about their performance issues based on a supervisor’s actions or that an employee should have “read between the lines” and known that there was a performance issue even though it was never discussed.
But when you are speaking with employees about their performance, whether in a daily chat or a yearly performance review, don’t be a Taylor Swift. Instead, your communications need to be clear, concise and direct. That is the absolute best way to avoid confusion and to give the employee the best chance of success.
These aren’t always easy conversations to have. No one likes to be the “bearer of bad news” but, as a supervisor, you are doing a disservice to the employee if you aren’t having these types of conversations. To be a high performing supervisor, you have to have the courage to have these tough conversations.
Some best practices:
- Don’t wait for the employee’s annual evaluation. Performance issues should be addressed as soon as they are noticed.
- Explain to the employee your expectations, how those expectations are not being met and what the employee can do to meet those expectations in the future.
- Set clear goals and deadlines for completing specific job duties which need improvement.
- Give clear examples of where you have observed performance deficits and give examples of what should have been done instead.
- Offer and encourage training if it becomes clear that the performance issue is a “lack of knowledge or training” issue.
- Schedule a follow-up discussion and keep it.
Just like any relationship, good communication is the key to success when dealing with employee performance. With a little patience, courage and a few direct conversations, you can help your employees improve their performance.
And speaking of relationships, congrats to Taylor and Travis on their engagement! Remember, communication is the key to any Love Story. Say Yes to it.