This past week we watched as tragedy unfolded at Virginia Tech. Seung-Hui Cho, a student at the university killed classmates and professors in the largest mass murder in U.S. history.
As more information becomes available, it's clear that Cho was a time bomb waiting to go off. In spite of interventions by teachers, he continued in his studies until his rampage.
Just a few days later, a bad performance review led NASA contractor Bill Phillips to fatally shoot his supervisor and take another employee hostage before killing himself.
This is a wakeup call to all in management. Some of your employees have different breaking points. If you have a bullying management style, you're ultimately risking a major problem.
Cho, by some accounts was bullied in high school. Phillips' supervisor e-mailed him his negative annual review. No verbal explanation. When the core of who people are is belittled, ridiculed, or criticized, it wounds deep.
Certainly this shouldn't prevent you from doing regular performance reviews. A clear documented record of performance may help diffuse a potential lethal situation because the employee's poor performance would be brought to their attention early. I'm thinking more along the lines of abusive management behavior.
Everyone, regardless of performance, is entitled to basic human respect and dignity. Your job as a manager is to encourage top performance, not drive it out of them through abusive behavior. Reward and discipline fairly and evenly. Reward in public, scold in private. Stop bullying behavior between employees. Take some time to know your people beyond just their work life.
I don't condone the behavior of Cho or Phillips. Both were horrible crimes with no excuse whatsoever. But the incidents at Virginia Tech and NASA should be in the back of every manager's mind. Ask yourself these questions at the end of each work day: Could the way I handled that particular situation with Employee X cause them to react in a bad way? Did I do anything that could set them off? Did I handle the situation with fairness and treat them with the dignity they are entitled to? Am I carefully documenting each incident I'm addressing?
Not telling you what to do, but offering you a STRONG suggestion!
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