Mistake 4: Failure to Take Time to Give and Receive Feedback

You knocked it out of the park! Great job! We couldn’t have done it without you! Good work. How often have you heard this from a colleague or boss? Yes, it’s great to receive accolades, but how do generalities like these support positive performance? Inexperienced managers often struggle with providing effective feedback, both constructive and for recognition. Why? Because they haven’t experienced productive feedback themselves in their own work environment.

Giving performance feedback to employees on a regular basis is critical to a manager’s success. Effective managers reinforce performance expectations and help employees understand what’s going well and what can be done even more effectively. Great feedback doesn’t look back to plow old ground; it looks forward to how employees can be even more capable in the work they do.

The goal of feedback is to help others do things well and meet or exceed expectations. It is not to encourage or force your views and perspectives on others. Feedback is a great opportunity to highlight employee strengths and shore up less developed skills. It’s an effective way to connect with employees in a personal way and can be utilized to reinforce positive behaviors, develop additional skills, and correct behaviors that may have gotten off track.

Dozens of feedback models have been created by management consulting firms, academics, and organizations alike. I’ve utilized many of these and have honed three fine points from them all. Effective feedback: 

1.     Is factual; 

2.     Describes the impact of the behavior; and 

3.     Is future-action oriented. Effective feedback is concise and instructive; it starts a conversation, not a fight. 

This same framework works for recognition. How do you move beyond “great job” to something meaningful to the employee? Start by regularly observing your team or colleagues. Capture people doing things right. After all, nearly every employee does way more things right than wrong.

Giving effective feedback is just one of many aspects that a manager is responsible for. To be effective, it must be forward-looking, and preparation is key. Utilizing questions throughout the conversation facilitates a discussion rather than an argument while building trust over time.  

Want to learn more? Check out the entire book and purchase at www.inthelead.co/books.