Fear of how an employee will respond is the No. 1 reason managers say they delay and sometimes completely abandon performance conversations.  In fact, Many managers feel there is no way to adequately predict and prepare for an employee's response to feedback and are, therefore, convinced things will spin out of control.   

In reality, most performance issues will elicit a fairly predictable range of responses from employees, some of them even positive. We have identified the Top 10 Employee Reactions and suggest effective ways of addressing each. Understanding these reactions and what to do if confronted by them has moved countless managers to take on challenging and potentially volatile performance issues.