Provide corrective feedback promptly.
Corrective feedback should be provided soon after the problem is noticed rather than waiting
until a later time when the person may not remember the incident. Deal immediately with improper behavior that you observe, and handle other performance problems (complaints about
a subordinate, substandard quality or productivity) as soon as you can conduct a preliminary
investigation. Some managers save up criticisms for the annual appraisal meeting or scheduled
progress review meetings, but this practice is likely to be ineffective. By delaying feedback, you
lose the opportunity to deal with the problem immediately before it becomes worse. Moreover,
by not responding to inappropriate or ineffective behavior, the wrong message may be sent,
namely that the behavior is acceptable or not of any consequence. Finally, a person is likely to be
more defensive after hearing a barrage of criticisms at the same time.