For Managers Worried About 'Is Giving Feedback Harassment?': Learning from Junji Ueda's Teachings on Developing Subordinates in the Reiwa Era
This article is structured as a response from Mr. Ueda to a consultation from a manager who is troubled by the fact that feedback given to subordinates is perceived as a 'personal attack'.
Mr. Ueda explains the importance of recognizing that 'the times have changed,' rather than dismissing this issue as a mere generational gap. He points out that guidance and emotional 'anger' are completely different things. He urges managers to reflect on whether their own way of communicating included harsh words that might have cornered the other person.
As a solution, he suggests that before asking for changes from subordinates, managers themselves should first learn management methods suited to the modern era. Specifically, he explains that by clearly conveying positive messages such as 'I have expectations for you' and 'I want you to grow' before giving guidance, the guidance is more likely to be perceived as 'support' rather than an 'attack'.
Finally, he concludes by noting that it is also important for managers to relieve their own stress, such as by consulting with their own superiors, so they do not bottle it up. This article provides practical advice from a concrete and warm perspective on the difficulties of communication faced by modern managers.
From the Perspective of Corporate HR: Transforming This Article into Organizational Strength
The content discussed in this article highlights not just the worries of a single manager, but organizational issues held by many companies. We in HR need to view this issue not as a matter of individual skills or awareness, but as a theme that the entire organization should address, and translate it into concrete measures.
Introduction: From Individual Problems to 'Organizational Mechanism' Problems
It is easy to attribute problems to individuals by saying things like 'Young people these days...' or 'That manager lacks leadership skills.' However, that will not lead to a fundamental solution. The phenomenon of 'giving feedback and having it perceived as a personal attack' is highly likely to exist against a backdrop of organizational issues, such as a breakdown in communication, a lack of psychological safety, or the hollowing out of a development culture.
As HR, it is essential to view these events as important signals from the organization and to build 'mechanisms' and a 'culture' where healthier communication and development occur naturally. Below, I propose a concrete action plan.
1. Radical Update of Management Training: From 'Teaching' to 'Learning Together'
Management training is conducted in many companies, but has the content been updated to match the times? Training that only unilaterally teaches the definitions of harassment and prohibited acts only promotes manager atrophy and does not lead to essential communication improvement.
What is needed now is not only 'communication skills (teaching)' but also 'skills to understand and draw out the other person (coaching)' and 'high-quality dialogue (1-on-1 meetings).' It is important to provide opportunities to learn the kind of communication Mr. Ueda calls 'conveying expectations' while incorporating concrete role-playing.
Furthermore, the format of the training should also be reviewed. Instead of just classroom lectures where the instructor talks unilaterally, elements of 'peer learning' should be incorporated, where managers of the same generation share their own real-world worries and learn from each other's insights through case studies. This allows managers to gain the peace of mind that 'I am not the only one struggling,' which also leads to preventing isolation. As HR, we are expected to play the role of designing and facilitating these 'places for learning together'.
2. Fostering 'Psychological Safety': Creating Soil Where a Healthy Guidance Culture Grows
The background to the easy use of the term 'personal attack' may hide a low level of 'psychological safety' in the organization. Psychological safety is a state in which one can safely express one's thoughts and feelings to anyone in the organization. Without this soil, no matter how carefully one chooses words to provide guidance, subordinates will become overly defensive out of anxiety that 'my evaluation might be lowered' or 'my position might become precarious'.
As HR, the first step is to position this psychological safety as an important health indicator (KPI) for the organization and monitor it at fixed points. We visualize the state of the organization using anonymous surveys and the like, and provide feedback on the results to management and managers of each department.
Based on that, we promote concrete measures to increase psychological safety. For example,
Repeatedly sending messages from top management such as 'We welcome failure' and 'We praise challenges.'
Establishing ground rules in meetings so that anyone can speak freely regardless of their position.
Introduce a system like 'Thank You Cards' where employees can express gratitude and praise to one another.
Building a foundation of healthy human relationships where employees can feel safe speaking their true thoughts through such steady efforts is precisely an important role for HR. Only with this foundation in place can constructive guidance and feedback function effectively.
3. Building a Multi-faceted Support System for Middle Management
Middle management, like the person seeking advice, is in the most stressful position, caught between executive management and the front lines. It is necessary for the organization to build a multi-faceted support system so that they do not have to struggle in isolation.
One approach is supporting the construction of 'diagonal relationships'. Beyond the vertical relationship between direct supervisors and subordinates, 'diagonal relationships'—where one can consult with managers in other departments or HR staff who have fewer conflicts of interest—serve as a mental safety net. It is effective for HR to take the lead in launching cross-departmental mentoring programs or communities exclusively for managers to create opportunities for accidental encounters and consultation.
Another approach is engaging with supervisors (department manager level and above). It is necessary to clearly communicate to the supervisors of middle management that they have a role not only in evaluating the performance of their subordinate managers but also in listening to and supporting the organizational management challenges they face. 1-on-1 meetings should be held regularly not only between managers and their subordinates but also between managers and their own supervisors. As HR, you should educate them on the importance of this and support them with setting themes for these meetings if necessary.
4. Linking with Evaluation Systems: Toward a Mechanism that Fairly Evaluates Development Efforts
Ultimately, people prioritize behaviors that are evaluated. If a company's evaluation system is skewed solely toward the achievement of short-term individual performance goals, there will be little incentive for managers to spend time on dialogue and development with their subordinates.
You should clearly incorporate 'developmental behaviors' and 'contributions to team building'—such as how sincerely they have worked on developing subordinates and what ingenuity they have used to increase the team's psychological safety—into the evaluation criteria for managers. Utilizing 360-degree feedback and incorporating feedback from subordinates as part of the evaluation is also one method.
Sending a clear message through the most powerful tool—the evaluation system—that 'the company fairly evaluates managers who try to nurture their subordinates with care.' This can be called an effective measure for raising the quality of management across the entire organization and rooting a healthy culture of development.
