Experience with Constructive Criticism

As a Store Manager the opportunities to provide constructive criticism were abundant. Being an individual with 15 direct subordinates you are constantly in the role of providing feedback that will allow your employees to grow professionally. The best opportunity for me to do this was during my employee’s quarterly reviews. I had one specific employee who was a member of my management team who excelled in sales, but I found to be fundamentally lacking in the administrative duties in the running of the store. During his review I went over all of the administrative duties that he did well and those that he could improve on. One of the things I learned through my own management training was what is referred to as the “Compliment Sandwich.”  I began by going over what it was that he did well, then segued into what he needed improvement on and how I would help him improve, then once again went over some of the things that he did well. He was very responsive to this technique. In the weeks following his review I assisted him in improving the areas that I had pinpointed and found a marked improvement in his administrative performance. In this situation the one thing that I feel I could have done differently is to catch this discrepancy earlier on in his employ with me. Had I known he was lacking in this area I would have been more proactive with his training when he transferred to my store.