While it's true that everyone makes mistakes, habitual problems can kill a small business. Whether it's problems with systems, effort or quality, everyone can improve.
And yet, it's easy for managers and owners to shy away from having those tough conversations because they either fear conflict or they simply don't know how to walk through those talks, however necessary they may be.
Ancient proverbs tell us of the wisdom of hard conversations. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend," reads one. "The fear of man is a snare," reads another. Owners should never be afraid of telling the truth because of the consequences, but they ought to strive to build up the business even when their employees need to be corrected.
Former Reuters CEO Tom Glocer spoke with the Wall Street Journal on how
he lovingly but firmly critiques his employees on their employees. Though his experience is in media, Glocer's approach works well with businesses of any size and of any type.