It’s not hard for good managers to find reasons to praise their employees. After all, the company is built on their hard work, and they come in every day and throw their hearts into projects that make the manager look good in front of their bosses and shareholders. Most managers appreciate every hour their employees put in and every investment they make in company success.

But negative feedback is another thing altogether. For most of us, criticizing our employees takes years off of our lives, and we dread the moment when our face-to-face evaluation meetings turn in this direction.

If you feel this way at evaluation time, recognize that you’re not alone. All managers struggle with this task. (If they enjoy it, they’re terrible managers.) And second, recognize that negative feedback serves a Read More