A lot of times, managers tell me they're so afraid of having confrontations with employees that they let small problems slide because they don't want to deal with them. They don't want to seem like they're nit picking, they don't want to seem like they're picking on an employee and they really don't want to make a scene.
But here's what we've learned:
If you let small problems go, then a lot of times they fester and grow in to big problems. And eventually they become big enough that the manager really has to deal with them. And by then, the confrontation is inevitable.
The manager finally deals with this problem and the employee feels like it's coming from out of nowhere. "Gee, why didn't you say something about this months ago?" the employee asks.
And the conversation is probably not going to go well because by the time the manager deals with it, the problem has festered and grown and maybe things have actually gone wrong. There's frustration and there might even be anger.
Maybe the conversation is going to be heated. And the manager and the employee haven't been talking about this thing, so neither one of them is very good at talking about it. The manager hasn't been spelling out expectations, so maybe the employee feels like it's coming from out of nowhere. And there is probably some urgency because the manager is finally dealing with it.
So it's bad news.
Whereas if you deal with one small problem after another as they occur, while they're still small, it's just part of a continuous improvement process.
See, if you are talking to your employees every day or every other day or once a week, if you are coaching them, spelling out expectations and tracking performance, then you can solve one small problem after another. In that sense, nit picking is a good thing because it's just continuous improvement. You're just helping people fine-tune their performance, one person at a time, one day at a time.
Solve small problems before they turn into big problems.
Bonus Management Best Practice
Do you currently manage direct-reports whose performance is basically good, but who could use your help fine-tuning their performance? That is, do you currently manage any employees who have no significant glaring problems in their performance, but whom you could help solve one or more tiny problems?
Name all the tiny problems in that person's performance that you can name. Remember, tiny problems are good. Nobody is perfect. Every tiny problem is an opportunity for this person to improve.
From now on, keep a running list of tiny problems/opportunities-to-improve for every person. In your one-on-ones with each person, tackle one tiny problem at a time. Hammer away at that tiny problem until it disappears. Then move on to the next one.
What if you were always working with every person on solving one tiny problem after another? Then you'd be getting every person into an upward spiral of continuous improvement.
Created by: Bruce Tulgan, © 2009 RainmakerThinking, Inc. in conjunction with Bruce's free video newsletter that's available at
Rainmakerthinking.com.