Finding the time and courage to give people constructive feedback on their performance can be tricky. We all know that that it’s a vital part of personal development and team performance, so it’s obviously a great thing to do.

But most of us are busy and telling people how they’re doing can be hard.

If you’ve ever had to tell someone they’re not performing you’ll know just how hard it can be. Most people like to be liked: We want to be nice and have others be nice to us. Telling them they’re not measuring up to our expectations might seem less than nice. So we feel uncomfortable about saying anything and avoid it if we can.

If you highlight an issue they may disagree, they might get angry or cry, they may criticise you, or they may not even be aware that there’s a problem.

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