Productivity tip: Delivering criticism with minimal baggage

Delivering criticism requires some careful communication if you want it received well and acted upon without a lot of negative side effects.  While this isn’t always possible, one of the best tips for getting good results from criticism is to stick with the issue.  Avoid comments on a person or a person’s motivations.  

Let’s say you’d like to improve the turnaround time on routine messages channeled through the direct marketing department.  You could comment on their work habits and say something like, “If you were more efficient and handled all your incoming correspondence within the first hour of starting the day…”  Or, you could lead with some gratuitous compliments before you criticize such as, “You always do fabulous work for us, but …”  

However, much better than anything insincere or personal is to stick with the issue and say something like, “We are having a difficult time turning around messages for our offices in Europe; please process routine messages within 12 hours as often as possible.”