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Insults Feedback Communication

I wrote a draft report and gave it to my manager for review. He marked the whole thing up with nasty and insulting comments and then handed it back to me and told me to make the corrections. I don't even know what corrections to make. How do you suggest I deal with him?



Your manager does not seem to know the difference between constructive written comments and graffiti. Most effective managers today use a style that is premised on coaching, with the objective of building the employee's skill levels, confidence, and satisfaction. Your manager seems to be interested only in building himself.

One could even go a step further and ask where your manager was when you were actually preparing this report. He should have had several conferences with you along the way to keep the report on track.

Nonetheless, you should meet with him to go over each of his written comments and determine the specific steps he would like you to take. If you tell him that you do not appreciate the nasty comments, he may just as easily respond with more nastiness. You have a better chance of being heard and even influencing his behavior by letting him see how much time could have been saved if he had written constructive comments on the report in the first place.

Since he is not the king of feedback, you should also set some follow-up dates to meet with him to review your progress. With this approach, he will be less likely to write nasty comments because the work is more likely to meet his expectations, and any shortcomings could just as easily be attributed to his oversight.





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Reader comments

Posted by China on 2011-11-08 17:31:06
Not bad at all fellas and glalas. Thanks.