Scripts and kits for the parts of managing nobody trained you for.

Giving Difficult Feedback

The situation

Someone’s work isn’t good enough and they need to hear it plainly — a report that keeps coming back with errors, a habit starting to cost the team. Not a firing. A direct correction you want to land without blowing up the relationship.

The script

“[Name], I want to talk through the last few deliverables. I’ve got a couple of specific things, and I’d rather you hear them straight from me than guess.

Here’s what I’m seeing: the last three reports came back with numbers that didn’t reconcile, and I had to send two of them back before they went out.

That’s a problem because it slows the whole close, and it puts your name on work that isn’t at your level.

What I need going forward is every report cross-checked against the source file before it comes to me. That’s the bar.

Now — I’m telling you this because I know you can hit it. So help me understand what’s getting in the way.”

Then stop. That last line is the most important in the script — it turns a verdict into a conversation, and tells you whether this is a skill gap, a workload problem, or something you didn’t know about.

If they push back

“That’s not fair, the brief changed three times.” → “Maybe it did, and we’ll fix the brief. But the cross-check is on the work that goes out under your name, and that part I still need.” You concede the grievance without trading away the standard.