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Knowing when to address your employees as a group or individually depends on the percentage of your team involved in the issue or infraction. I’m kind of particular about this because my goal is always to improve behavior, not to embarrass.
If your entire team—100% of it—needs a pep talk, then you might as well bring everyone together and have the conversation once. They should recognize what it looks like when everyone is slacking.
If 5 out of 6 people on your team (80%) are underperforming, you might as well speak to them as a whole group. However, you may want to meet with your one star performer beforehand to let her know that the pep talk isn’t really meant for her. She should be present and hear it and just continue rocking out. It becomes too obvious to exclude her from your meeting and sometimes getting a whole team together can synchronize their newfound motivation to do better.
If 4 out of the 6 people on your team (66%) have not been pulling their weight and it’s obvious, you could bring the 4 of them together for a talk. If you get the sense that they don’t know each other is not performing, you may want to speak with each of them individually. They may have a variety of issues causing them to underperform, and the private conversation could yield a less embarrassing and more thoughtful discussion.
If half or less some messed up (< 50%) please, please, please, talk to them separately. Either individually or as a group but do not include the rest of the team that is performing well. This is embarrassing for the ones who are underperforming, and it's confusing for the ones who are performing. No need to vaguely address an issue that only applies to a few people.
It’s important that when you make a decision about the kind of forum to hold when giving your team a pep talk you choose the one that is most likely to get people to change their behavior. If someone is distracted with anger because you embarrassed her, she’s not going to improve quickly. How do you decide on the format when addressing issues with your team? Share them below.