Addressing issues of poor performance

I bet there are no manager or team leader who has never been in situation where to give feedback to employee who has not reached the targets. It is pretty challenging situation to find out suitable words and provide safe and constructive atmosphere in order avoid "fight-or-escape"-reaction of employee.

Simple rules for giving constructive feedback are:

1. Get to the point. 
2. Be precise.
3. Set targets.

From the book "101 Coaching Strategies and Techniques" I found a nice tool to full fill these rules, it is called DESC.

DESC comes from the words:

• D - Describe the behaviour/issue/imporvement needed item/.... Pay attention to used "I" form like "I have noticed you have been coming late to work."
• E - Explain the effects of issue you have described like "This means that team needs to cancel morning meetings or they are just sitting and waiting for you."
• S - State what you need employee to change. Pay attention again to use "I" form, "I really need you to be in on time."
• C - Consequences for employee: good if the behaviour does change and bad if not. Idea of C is to give confidence that it is worth to raise the issue.