The terror zone

I once told an employee in a 1-on-1 meeting that I didn’t think he’d put in his best effort on a project.

I thought the comment was innocuous, but this employee got so flustered that he stood up and walked out of the meeting.

Two hours later, I got a call from his boss. The employee insisted I was about to fire him because he did a bad job on the project. I had to explain that, no, I just felt he hadn’t put in his best effort. I figured I was being nice - I was saying I knew he could’ve done even better!

I had accidentally put him into the terror zone.

The terror zone is a place most managers are very sensitive about putting their employees in. Instead, when giving feedback, they default to the opposite extreme: keeping the employee squarely in the comfort zone.

But that doesn’t work either. You can’t be a good manager and just say the things that make employees comfortable (“Great job!” “You’re the best!” “Everything is fine!”).

In order for people to change their behavior, you must ta…