Igniting results, heart, and innovation in fast moving companies.

There are always employees who struggle with confrontation, and for them, approaching a supervisor with negative feedback or a difficult situation can be especially anxiety-inducing. It is, however, an important skill to learn to keep communication open both for the employee and the company as a whole.

It’s the end of the year. You have performance review meetings scheduled with all seven of your direct reports. It’s good news: They are all getting their bonuses this year. For each of them, you have prepared a bulleted list of focus areas for the next year, usually the areas where they need to improve. Everyone gets their bonus and leaves knowing how they need to get better. Win-win, right?

There is a well-known Greek myth that goes something like this: The gods, being characteristically devious, gave a beautiful container to Pandora, one of the first humans. They told her she could have the box but was never to open it. Of course, human curiosity led her to disobey the order. When she opened the box, all of the chaos and hardships of the world were released into our lives.