Home » The management of reproaches in a team

The management of reproaches in a team

by admin
The management of reproaches in a team

If there is one thing that I have learned over many years that I deal with startups and that I follow the culture of Silicon Valley, it is the importance of management of reprimands in a team (but also in a family): if you want a team to remain a team, if you don’t want to humiliate those who made mistakes, if you want to help them make less mistakes, the reprimand is never public. In front of colleagues. In a chat that everyone can read.

Reporting an error is done in private. To do the opposite is a public pillory. It means exposing the victim to the disapproval of colleagues: it is a useless and harmful humiliation that demolishes a team day after day. Far from preventing other errors, which instead there will be, it prevents other initiatives, proposals, ideas. He transforms the members of a team into automatons who, in order to avoid reproaches, must conform to perform exactly the tasks that have been entrusted to them without changing anything, without proposing anything. Without the courage to point out if you are making a mistake yourself. This impoverishes a team. Which becomes like a plant without flowers. Alive, but off.

A middle school principal once called a boy to suspend him for misconduct. For the first 20 minutes he showered him with praise for his talent, to the point that he thought he was rewarding him. Then he told him that he reluctantly suspended him one day so he could go back to being himself. That principal got it all figured out: reproaches are fundamental, but must be kept to a minimum. Only for the really important things and without humiliation. Because no success is built on the fear of making mistakes.

See also  Vitamin D: Too much can be dangerous

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy