Thank you, Harvard Business Review, for letting everyone else know that having Ivy League credentials doesn't mean you walk on water. When you have the leader,

Thank you, Harvard Business Review, for letting everyone else know that having Ivy League credentials doesn't mean you walk on water. When you have the leader, in the example shown, publicly dressing down "Ted" and then asking for validation from the rest of the team ("Am I off? Am I on target?"), you're not only saying to everyone "I'm willing to publicly humiliate you, too", but you're also saying something which can easily be misconstrued as "I need your validation because I'm a bit unsure of myself" and leaving yourself wide open to revolt from the team with the validating questions. Just one or two disgruntled employees can cause things to spin rapidly out of control. Instead, when I have a situation like this I take Ted privately off to the side and say "Ted, I expect X, but I saw that you did Y. Why is that?" When said appropriately, Ted might say "actually, I did Y because of Z" and then if you find out that Ted had a good reason to see the situation differently, you didn't just charge in guns-a-blazin' to publicly humiliate him only to make an ass out of yourself (I've seen this happen more than once). If you're good at your job, Ted is usually wrong, so you explain to Ted why X is important and the consequences of Y and work to eliminate the underlying problem (which may very well be Ted himself). Once your team learns that you're willing to hear them out but you're going to take corrective action when needed, you can earn their respect. Publicly humiliating them by calling them out in a team meeting, however, is completely unprofessional.