Uploaded August 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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Transcript:
Hi there, and thanks for joining today. One of the big things that leaders struggle with is coaching their personnel when they have some negative feedback to give them without hurting the person’s ego. Ego isn’t always a bad thing. Ego gives you confidence, and you don’t want somebody to be shy about taking action just because something didn’t work out prior. So leaders have come up with all sorts of different ways of tackling this. The most common is actually what’s known as the “feedback sandwich.” That’s where you start with a layer of positive feedback, give the negative feedback, and then end on a positive note as well. My issue with this is that it has become so pervasive that it is kind of disingenuous. It doesn’t ring true. It looks like you’re “playing them” a little bit when you open with something, “but I need to talk to you about this.” So what I focus on more is moving that around just a little bit. You want to focus on the issue, you want to be issue focused, not person focused. They may have made a mistake, but tackle the mistake, not them. One of those important things is that you are in this as a team. It’s not about “you”, when you’re talking to them, it’s about “we”. How are we going to solve this? We’re part of a team. So if you instill a couple of things like that into your discussion and coaching session, then you can turn this around so it is not an ego thing at all. So talk about the issue, but be specific. Be very specific. If you’re not specific then they can kind of float things in there, “what if it’s about me?” that sort of thing. You don’t want that to be the case, you want to be very specific about it. You want to reflect on why you are giving that feedback to them. That they are an important part of the organization, you have faith in them, you want them to grow and develop and that is why you are telling them about this is because you trust them to take it and move on from it and learn from it. The other thing that you want to do is you want to focus on the action steps forward. So you bring up the issue, you re-instill that confidence that you have faith in them, and then you back up that statement with action steps that they can take, that you both can take, to see that they learn from it and get back on the horse. It’s so important that you work on the next action steps. You don’t just give negative feedback and tell them to fix it. You give them negative feedback, reinforce that they are on your team, and back that statement up with a plan that the two of you work together to see through. And that’s how you conquer that ego problem. Thanks, have a good day.
► ► Subscribe to My Channel Here youtube.com/c/CameronMorrissey
Transcript:
Hi there, and thanks for joining today. One of the big things that leaders struggle with is coaching their personnel when they have some negative feedback to give them without hurting the person’s ego. Ego isn’t always a bad thing. Ego gives you confidence, and you don’t want somebody to be shy about taking action just because something didn’t work out prior. So leaders have come up with all sorts of different ways of tackling this. The most common is actually what’s known as the “feedback sandwich.” That’s where you start with a layer of positive feedback, give the negative feedback, and then end on a positive note as well. My issue with this is that it has become so pervasive that it is kind of disingenuous. It doesn’t ring true. It looks like you’re “playing them” a little bit when you open with something, “but I need to talk to you about this.” So what I focus on more is moving that around just a little bit. You want to focus on the issue, you want to be issue focused, not person focused. They may have made a mistake, but tackle the mistake, not them. One of those important things is that you are in this as a team. It’s not about “you”, when you’re talking to them, it’s about “we”. How are we going to solve this? We’re part of a team. So if you instill a couple of things like that into your discussion and coaching session, then you can turn this around so it is not an ego thing at all. So talk about the issue, but be specific. Be very specific. If you’re not specific then they can kind of float things in there, “what if it’s about me?” that sort of thing. You don’t want that to be the case, you want to be very specific about it. You want to reflect on why you are giving that feedback to them. That they are an important part of the organization, you have faith in them, you want them to grow and develop and that is why you are telling them about this is because you trust them to take it and move on from it and learn from it. The other thing that you want to do is you want to focus on the action steps forward. So you bring up the issue, you re-instill that confidence that you have faith in them, and then you back up that statement with action steps that they can take, that you both can take, to see that they learn from it and get back on the horse. It’s so important that you work on the next action steps. You don’t just give negative feedback and tell them to fix it. You give them negative feedback, reinforce that they are on your team, and back that statement up with a plan that the two of you work together to see through. And that’s how you conquer that ego problem. Thanks, have a good day.
