18 Arbor Age / July 2014 www.arborage.com
Document, document,
document…and share
Few things are more disorienting
or disheartening to a well intentioned
crew member than feeling "blindsided"
by a criticism, poor work review, or even
disciplinary action. Leaders, regardless of
their feelings about paperwork/forms,
must document both negative and
positive impressions about their crew
members/employees. If it is not docu-
mented, who is to say it truly happened;
and nothing carries more weight when
confronting someone about an issue
than specifi c dates, times and locations;
just as an employee being lauded for
their good work is impressed with the
time, date and location of their success.
However, documentation is not enough;
feedback is imperative, both of a positive
and negative nature. If an employee has
a tardiness problem, the fi rst time it is
mentioned to them should not be when
they are being "let go" for being late all
the time. The majority of people want
to do well at their job and succeed, and
they should be offered the opportunity
to do so. Letting them know when they
need to make changes, as well as when
they've "done a gooder" will help them
succeed. Celebrate successful achieve-
ments; otherwise folks will start to think
they can't do anything right due to only
hearing criticism.
Praise and punishment
As mentioned, both positive and
negative aspects of a crew member's
work habits should be documented and
shared, in a timely fashion, with the
worker/employee, but how that infor-
mation is shared must be handled cor-
rectly. A simple rule, and one that most
are probably familiar with is "praise in
public and punish in private." While
perhaps overly simplistic, this does cover
the basics of correctly sharing positive
or negative information. After all, few
people enjoy being "dressed down" in
front of their peers, which can lead to
resentment and embarrassment instead
of the positive urge to do better. Al-
though some tree folks may be shy, or
a bit uncomfortable in being praised in
Standard operating procedures make work go more smoothly and help employees
know what is expected.
Photos on this page by M. Tain
A leader always takes time to explain.
TRAINING & EDUCATION TRAINING & EDUCATION
