In The Managerial Moment of Truth: the Essential Step in Helping People Improve Performance, Bruce Bodaken and Robert Fritz try to address that problem, showing managers how to help employees face the reality of poor performance without making them feel denigrated or incompetent. This process also enhances the manager’s own career success, the authors say.

Fritz, a management consultant, created the moment-of-truth technique to better implement Bodaken’s notion that critical leadership principles need to be disseminated among managers at every level within the organization.

Specifically, Bodaken felt that managers at Blue Shield of California, where he is chairman and CEO, often didn’t take the time to analyze the management component of chronic underperformance. “It was common to habitually soften the truth to prevent offending someone,” he said.

“Too often, managers think they have only one of two unpleasant choices: to have a contentious confrontation or to avoid addressing the situation. Whichever path they choose, real and lasting change rarely happens,” the authors write.

The actual moment of truth occurs when you find that there is a difference between what you expected and what was delivered, and the decision you make in response to that situation.

“This is a defining moment, because the decisions you make will determine your impact as a manager,” Fritz and Bodaken say.

The book is chock-full of case studies and scenarios that tackle a wide range of “moments of truth.”

At the heart of the book is the idea of developing a discipline of truth-telling in your organization.

“If you’re a strong leader, you want people around you to tell you the hard truth. You want to be able to tell the people around you the hard truth as well,” the authors say.