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Working productively: Responding to secondhand information as a manager

An employee tells you in confidence that a coworker has made statements that are upsetting to her. Another employee complains privately that a team member is not pulling his weight on a shared project. You hear from a staff member in a distant office that the angry outbursts of an employee cause discomfort to those who work in nearby cubicles.

Incidents like this raise a host of questions for managers. What do you do with this kind of secondhand information? Is it more important to address the performance problem or protect the confidentiality of your source? How do you know whether the information is accurate? How do you manage performance problems you haven't directly observed?

Difficulties in acting on secondhand information
One of your roles as a manager is to help employees solve problems and clear obstacles that get in the way of their work. Another is to manage your employees' performance, encouraging productive behavior and helping employees correct unproductive behavior. Secondhand information plays into both of those roles, but without offering you a clear course of action on either. It often leaves managers feeling that they should do something, but that their hands are tied and the choices unclear.

When an employee talks to you about a conflict with a coworker or about a teammate's unproductive behavior, it's often with the hope that you will solve the problem. And your first inclination may be to do just that. But what is the problem? Is it really the behavior of the other employee? Or could your informant be wrong in their perception of what has happened? Two people can observe the same event or participate in the same conversation and come away with very different views of what has happened.

If you act on information from one employee without finding out if there may be another interpretation, you run the risk of "correcting" a problem that doesn't exist and missing the more important root problem. Moreover, you could alienate or antagonize someone needlessly.

You also face a dilemma when it comes to your responsibility for managing performance. The best way to deal with a performance issue is to talk directly with the employee and give specific examples that illustrate the problem. But when your information about the problem comes to you secondhand, you are put in a bind. You may be caught in the middle between two conflicting views with no way of knowing which one is correct -- or whether either is.

The problems are compounded when the secondhand information comes to you with a request to keep it confidential. Your choices now are even more difficult: Honor the request for confidentiality and don't act, or act and risk losing the trust of your team.

There are no simple solutions to these dilemmas. But if the information concerns a genuine performance problem or a conflict that's interfering with a group's work, you should find a way to respond.

Encourage and coach your employees to deal with the situation directly
On the most effective teams, members don't need a manager to help them resolve conflict and deal with problems. They work issues out among themselves. By stepping in to solve problems, you may actually be keeping your team from reaching its potential for effective teamwork. So the best solution to a problem you are told about in confidence may be to teach your employees how to solve it themselves.

When an employee tells you about a problem with a coworker, encourage them to share the observation directly with the person who is creating the problem. Offer coaching on how to do it.

• Explain that it's in everyone's interest to address the problem, as it is affecting productivity and morale. Talk about the effects of the problem. What happens as a result of the behavior? Why is it important that someone tries to correct or stop it?
• Suggest some ways to bring up the issue. In general, the best thing to do is to give direct, immediate feedback when the problem occurs.
• Explain how to give specific examples when bringing up a performance problem and how to keep the conversation focused on the specific performance issue.
• Emphasize the need to let the other employee respond to the facts presented. Coach on when to let the matter rest and what to do if the other employee challenges the facts or their interpretation.
• Offer reassurance that you will step in if this direct approach does not solve the problem. Your intervention will be much more effective after the employees first try to solve the problem between themselves, as the issue will then be out in the open.

Act on the information without revealing your source
Have a private conversation with the "problem" employee. Bring up the subject by stating what you've been told. Then ask for the employee's view on what has happened. If the employee asks you to identify your source, politely refuse. If you've received several related complaints, you might acknowledge them.

You don't need to take the position that your information is true. What matters is that there's a perception among team members that a problem exists. Make it clear that perceptions of problems can be as disruptive to coworker relationships and teamwork as obvious misbehavior.

The goals of this conversation should be to:

1. Let the employee know that a problem exists.
2. Seek to figure out what might be causing the problem.
3. Come up with a plan, or at least some first steps, to resolve the problem.
4. Agree on a way to determine when the problem has been resolved.

Then, check on a regular basis to verify that the plan is being followed.

Mediate
If the problem appears to lie in the working relationship between employees, separate conversations may never get you to a solution. You may need to mediate between the employees who are having difficulty.

Arrange a meeting with the employees, with the objective to figure out what is getting in the way of effective completion of their work together. As a mediator, your role is to encourage your employees to share their perceptions of the situation, both what is working well and what is not.

To keep the discussion productive:

• Encourage active listening; you might ask each of them to restate what they have heard as the other person's perception.
• Interrupt any angry outbursts or generalized accusations.
• Keep the employees to the facts of what needs to happen for effective completion of the work.
• Ask for specific examples of behavior that has discouraged effective work together.
• Offer practical suggestions for changing work processes or employee behavior.
• Focus the conversation on the future, not the problems of the past. What can be done to improve the situation? What actions or behaviors would make the team's work more effective?

This article is adapted from Ceridian's LifeWorks Online service. Contact your Ceridian representative for more information about Ceridian's employee effectiveness solutions.