How to make the best out of the bad
You may be a CEO or an admin assistant, you want to be respected. It is easy to complain but it is difficult to make people think. If you are expressing an unpopular opinion, justify it and give pliable alternatives.
When you are pointing out your finger at somebody, be honest but tactful. When you approach your team members with a harsh tone about missing deadlines, you will be putting them on the defensive. Belittling somebody exposes you. You need not cuddle anybody for their mistakes but you cannot make them look stupid. Do you like a boss who doesn't respect you? Probably you don't. Remember this when you tackle with erring colleagues.
You may have come across occasions when your boss might have fired an employee thru e-mail, some workmen might have quit because they won't like to be treated with disrespect. If that employee was fired for a just cause, others would not have reacted that way. This disrespectful situation could have been avoided by speaking to the employee in private.
How can you do it right?
It isn't really impossible to be the bad guy (but really the good guy); you just need to be careful.
You should not blame anybody without offering suggestions for bringing about collective improvement.
Telling truth is not painless but it need not be torturous.
Nobody is perfect. Some mistakes can be ignored. There is no necessity to point out every mistake someone makes.
Be a good guy. Besides pointing out mistakes, make it a point to take note of the good and give a pat to the deserving.
