Do We Have A Failure to Communicate?

Which guidelines should you consider when you need to deliver bad news to team members?

-Acknowledge the other peoples' emotions -Move away from the details to let people process the news -Get right to the point and provide all the important facts -Continue to check in briefly with employees -Invite employees to send their thoughts via e-mail, or meet to discuss their issues one-to-one over the next couple of days

Jim recently started as a customer service representative at a consulting firm. Since it's his first time in this sector, he's eager to learn and has been spending extra hours in the office, taking on additional assignments. A coworker, Carla, who has been at the company for two years, accused Jim of trying to make her look bad with his keen work ethic. Jim reacted angrily and accused her of laziness and jealousy in return. This has led to a complete breakdown of communication, which is affecting Jim's productivity.How should Jim address this problem with Carla?

-Come right out and name the problem. They've had a misunderstanding, and both of them are responsible for the failure to resolve it. He should admit that he is partially to blame. -State to Carla that the breakdown is stopping them both from meeting their productivity goals, and ask Carla for her thoughts on how they might move forward.

You're a team leader at a small customer service help desk. One of the employees, Jim, has not been fulfilling his duties and will need to move to a new role in which he will have less responsibility and do less interesting work.What steps should you take to deal with this issue?

-Move past your own discomfort to deliver the news to Jim with authenticity -Send Jim a brief e-mail message titled "Discussion of team reshuffles" in which you schedule time to meet with him as soon as possible -Think about the conversation and prepare and rehearse what you're going to say beforehand

What are signs of a potential for miscommunication?

-The other person's tone of voice reveals a misunderstanding of your intent -The other person doesn't make any clarifying comments -You get no response from the other person

1."Could you drop me a brief e-mail about what you think the causes of the high number of issues are, and how to resolve them?" 2."What I meant was for some immediate action to be taken. What was your understanding of my intent?" 3."Could you get that to me sometime this afternoon? If that's too soon, just let me know."

1.Resolve 2.Share 3.Agree