05.09.12 The 10th Leadership Practice for Managing Negative Gossip : Encourage Self Assessments
Encourage Self Assessments
It is important to create or foster a culture where team members assess themselves before being appraised by their supervisors and teammates.
In Numbers 12: 6-8, we see God putting a call on Miriam and Aaron to assess themselves. That scripture reads (NKJV): 6Then He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. 7Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. 8I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses? I would like to suggest that God actually meant that the two should do a soul search to find out why they had dared to backbite the Man of God. This shows that Miriam and of course Aaron should have taken the initiative to examine themselves with ‘big sis’ in the lead, so as to discover whether their comments about Moses was from a pure heart or otherwise.
In the JuaLink story, and as already mentioned, Eliya tried to get Lulu to evaluate herself without much success. But things would have been so different had she known how to do that objectively.
There are several advantages associated with self-assessments. Generally, team members get an opportunity to reflect on their strengths and limitations, so that you, as their supervisor, can easily identify where they need your assistance. Specifically, you will get an insight into how members view themselves and whether any gossip-related traits have been mentioned. The other good thing is that the team member will own the assessment, other than imposing it on him or her. If they appraise themselves objectively, it will be easier for you to deal with the gossiping habit, rather than having to assess them yourself. It is important to note though, that their self-assessments could be subjective and lop-sided. So, plan to combine the assessments of members with yours and those of other teammates, for objectivity.
For that matter, create an environment that encourages team members to appraise themselves (and their teammates) realistically.