The Power of Reprimand
An effective manager is one who helps his people reach their potential consistently in the work place. He has been primarily engaged to produce results. He has to tell people right from the start that he is going to let them know how they are doing. If he catches people doing right, he needs to praise people immediately. If you catch people doing right it helps the organization & the other people who work there. By catching people doing right & encouraging them to do more of the same, the said behavior gets repeated. The manager often indulges in praise which makes the employee perform better each day.
Sometimes the act of praise by the boss towards his employee is often taken for granted. If the boss catches people doing wrong in their work place, he needs to reprimand them. He needs to tell people how he feels about what they did wrong – & in no uncertain terms. By doing so, he is correcting the behavior so that it does not get repeated. If the first half of the reprimand is to correct the people doing wrong the second half of the reprimand is to shake hands, or touch the employee in a way that makes him aware that his boss is honestly on his side. Also remind him that how much you value them.
As a boss you should be aware the reprimand or punishment meted to the employee should necessarily be in proportion to the misconduct committed by him failing which the purpose gets defeated. The boss needs to exercise a fine balance between praise & reprimand so that the employees do not take him for granted. In many organizations the bosses indulge in the act of praise immediately & when it comes to reprimanding employees he often hesitates leading to indiscipline percolating down the line. Thus, reprimand as a weapon has to be used sparingly whenever manager observes poor behavior. Reprimand the disorderly behavior & never attack a person’s value as a person. To think of it, say that I am nice & tough as a manager. But to be accurate, I’m really tough & nice.
‘There is, in fact, a story in ancient China that illustrates this. Once upon a time, an emperor appointed a second in command. He called this prime minister in and, in effect, said to him, why don’t we divide up the tasks? Why don’t you do all the punishing and I’ll do all the rewarding? The prime minister said, fine. I’ll do all the punishing and you do all the rewarding.’
‘Now this emperor’, soon noticed that whenever he asked someone to do something, they might do it or they might not do it. However, when the prime minister spoke, people moved. So the emperor called in the prime minister again and said, why don’t we divide the tasks again? You have been doing all the punishing here for quite a while. Now let me do the punishing and you do the rewarding. So the prime minister and the emperor switched roles again.
‘And within a month, the prime minister was emperor. The emperor has been a nice person, rewarding and being kind to everyone; then he started to punish people. People said, what’s wrong with that old codger? And they threw him out. When they came to look for a replacement, they said, you know who’s really starting to come around now – the prime minister. So they put him into office.’
The moral of the story: If you are tough on the behavior, and then supportive of the person it works.’ That is the power of reprimand. Use it sparingly it works wonders.
(The author of this article has a tremendous experience of over 2 decades in the field of Human Resources. Presently, attached to Anjuman I Islam, A.K.Hafizka Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology in the capacity of Head of Department.)
My name is Iyer Subramanian. My qualifications are as under. Bachelor of Arts, Diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, Diploma in Labor Laws & Labor Welfare, Diploma in HRM, Diploma in Training & Development. I have around 25 years of experience in HR and write for Express Hospitality, Hospitalitybiz, Business Manager regularly on HR. Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/human-resources-articles/the-power-of-reprimand-1171814.html
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