From the post below, how could they have made the conversation more productive?

About a year ago I worked for a different company and our supervisor had to have a difficult conversation with everyone on the team because our performance levels were low. For background information: This was a customer service job at a call center.

I had gone through multiple supervisors with this company, but the current one I had at that time was horrible when it came down to effective communication. He never really had conversation techniques; he was either very forward about his opinion or passive-aggressive, which made our team anxious and felt like we were walking on eggshells. When we had our meeting about our performance levels, our supervisor was quick to point fingers, belittle, and be unsupportive. It was a difficult conversation because he was showing who was performing the lowest in front of the entire team.

As employees, we primarily used non-verbal communication when involved in meetings with him. We (employees) recognized him as having a supervisory position, so we did not argue or go against what he would say. However, we would acknowledge his opinions of the team by nodding our heads or giving a thumbs up to continue about our day.

The performance evaluation conversation could have been better had he spoke to us in constructive ways on how we could do better, rather than pointing out who is doing what wrong. He also should not have targeted specific employees who performing the lowest and displayed that in front of everyone. He should have had a one-on-one meeting with the individual to bring it to their attention and work on a performance improvement plan (PIP).

The outcome of the meeting was left as awkward and tension amongst co-workers. It separated employees from one another causing them to not want to work together to achieve organizational goals.