Leading From the Middle: A Supervisor’s Challenge; New York Times, 3/18/16

Rob Walker, New York Times; Leading From the Middle: A Supervisor’s Challenge:

"I am an assistant manager at a convenience store and gas station chain. My clerks enjoy talking to one another, and this gets excessive when certain employees are paired up. I usually let it go on for five or so minutes before nudging them back to work...

Am I intervening too soon? Is there some better way to say, “Guys, break it up” or “I don’t mind if you talk, but we have to keep working,” and so on?...

A former Google manager named Kim Scott (who has also worked with many other tech companies) has advocated an approach she calls “radical candor.” This is perhaps just a hyped-up way of saying “be honest” — but it’s useful nonetheless.

Ms. Scott suggests two important yardsticks: caring and challenging. The way I read her thinking, each is crucial to providing productive guidance. The problem with a boss who doesn’t really care about workers but challenges them constantly is obvious enough. But a manager who cares about employees yet can never quite muster the courage to be openly critical — even when criticism would ultimate benefit the employee — falls into a category Ms. Scott calls “ruinous empathy.” This is bad for everybody, including you.

With that in mind, refine your nudging. Be clear about setting parameters, as opposed to reacting solely in the moment: We’re here to serve customers, not socialize, so work takes priority over chitchat, period. And as Ms. Scott advises, deliver praise in public, but criticism in private."