"In the workplace, meet-me-halfway is shorthand for ‘I have to decide if you are worth more investment of my time and energy, and if you do not meet me half way, I have my answer,” writes guest columnist Bruce Clarke, CEO of North Carolina-based CAI, a non-profit employers’ association that helps firms with HR needs.
Employees who take no responsibility for their poor performance from the get-go will quickly inform an employer how much time they should invest in trying to resolve existing issues. But if an employee is forthright that they need to do things differently, then the employer may find it worth their time to work things out.
“If you get an admission of some fault, and that fault is reinforced by a thoughtful description of the ways behaviors must change starting today, it is time to seal the deal with a genuine offer of your help,” Clarke writes. “The offer does two things. It firms up the commitment to change and gives you a measurement tool for the coming days/weeks.”