Bar-David Consulting

A true story relayed to me recently: an employee was berated by another department’s supervisor for being late on completing a task. The event took place in the office corridor where other people could clearly overhear the exchange.
The victim’s manager happened to pass by. She told the berating supervisor that this matter will be sorted out in private and diffused the situation. Later, in private, she told that supervisor never to speak again in this manner to the employee in question.
Consider: did this manager deal with the situation correctly?
Well, only partially.
Managers are taught that correcting behaviour must take place in private; this has become second nature to most (good) leaders. But when it comes to behaviours which threaten a person’s sense of psychological integrity or to any other behaviour which significantly poisons the work environment (offensive jokes, for example), the rule governing corrective action is the exact opposite: what is done in public needs to be corrected in public.
Why correct in public what’s done in public? Because if you don’t, you are essentially condoning the behaviour. By not taking action, you are actively creating a culture that allows these things to happen. Those observing will leave the arena knowing that no protection is available in this type of situation. Furthermore, in a situation such as above, where the observing group is comprised of a random configuration, it is important to respond on the spot (as difficult as this may seem): you will never have another chance to address this same unique configuration of people again.
And since it’s not easy to take action under these circumstances, look for the next blog entry for a discussion of how exactly to respond under these conditions.