Encourage the employee to engage in self-evaluation. If the climate is supportive, employees may openly acknowledge performance problems you ve identified, thus eliminating your need to raise them. They may even offer viable solutions to these problems. Criticize performance but not the person. When criticizing, soften the tone but not the message.
Criticism is criticism, even if it s constructive.
When you try to sell it as something else, you re liable to create ambiguity and misunderstanding. If something needs to be criticized, direct the criticism at a specific job-related behavior that negatively affects the employee s performance. Use specific examples to support your ratings. Document your team member s performance. Don t exaggerate.