The holiday season is here. The season of giving. Are you wondering what to give your employees this year? How about a gift that your employees, and you, will benefit from all year long? Feedback! Feedback is a gift that truly keeps on giving and can be as wonderful to give as it is to receive.
Over the years, I have heard one wish, repeatedly, from employees. “We want more feedback” – and not just at annual review time, but throughout the year. Employees want to know how they are doing, if they are meeting your expectations, how they can improve, and what else they can do to succeed. Feedback is a critical interpersonal tool, but it’s not easy. It takes skill to deliver feedback. It can be awkward, uncomfortable and if not done correctly, misunderstood and ineffective – or sometimes even counter effective.
In Express Yourself to Success, Laurie Wilhelm succinctly describes effective feedback as ongoing, both formal and informal, frequent, timely, honest, respectful, clear, issue-specific, objective, action and solution oriented – and given with the goal of improvement. On the other hand, destructive feedback is unhelpful, accusatory, personal, judgmental, subjective, undermines the self-esteem of the receiver, leaves the issue unresolved, and leaves the receiver unsure of how to proceed.
When you provide effective feedback, you offer encouragement, support and direction. You show that you care and that you want your employees to succeed.
When you provide effective feedback, you offer encouragement, support and direction. You show that you care and that you want your employees to succeed.
There are many ways to develop this critical skill – whether it be formal training sessions or workshops, or self developing. One of my go to book suggestions for new and seasoned managers alike, is Tell Me How I’m Doing: A Fable About the Importance of Giving Feedback, by Richard L. Williams. The book offers easy-to-implement strategies to use feedback to encourage initiative, responsibility, loyalty, and trust. Simply written, in the form of a fable, the book effectively illustrates the importance of feedback and how to deliver it effectively.
I encourage you to explore the concepts of this fable in detail, but allow me to briefly introduce some here.
The Four Types of Feedback – Tell Me How I’m Doing
Supportive
According to Miller, the primary purpose of supportive feedback is to reinforce and maintain a behavior you want repeated. If someone exhibits a behavior that you like and want repeated, the single most important thing you can do is to communicate that. Don’t assume that it’s obvious or that the employee knows. You may be busy, but if you don’t take the opportunity to reinforce the behavior, you may never see it again. Don’t miss out on a golden opportunity.
Supportive feedback, when delivered properly, is a powerful tool to achieve behavior repetition and for modifying and shaping behavior.But it’s not as simple as saying, “great work” or “keep it up”. As illustrated in the fable, you should:
- Describe the specific behavior;
- Describe the consequence of the behavior;
- Describe how you feel about the behavior; and
- Describe why you feel that way.
Corrective
Corrective feedback is sometimes confused with criticism, but while the content can be negative, if delivered in a positive and constructive way, it’s positive. Miller explains that the primary purpose of corrective behavior is to change a behavior. The best chance you have of changing someone’s behavior is to provide corrective feedback. As described, in detail, in the book, the five steps to correcting behavior are to:
- Try supportive feedback first.
- Use carefully guided questions.
- State that improvement is needed.
- Use appropriate discipline.
- Draw a line in the sand.
Insignificant
Insignificant feedback is vague or general. The receiver doesn’t understand the purpose of insignificant feedback.
Abusive
Abusive feedback is any type of feedback that is not supportive, corrective or insignificant.
Ten dimensions of feedback – Tell Me How I’m Doing
- Have a plan. Prepare for your feedback and deliver it with clear examples. Have a solution in mind.
- Be specific. Talk about what really happened. Use facts.
- Focus on behaviors. To be effective, feedback focuses on specific behaviors that you can see and measure.
- Time and place. Feedback should be given as soon after the event as possible and corrective feedback should never be delivered in public.
- Balanced. It’s important to find the right balance between supportive and corrective feedback.
- Relevant. Stay objective. Avoid references to events in the past.
- Effective techniques. Get to the point, use eye contact, focus on one major issue.
- Effective style. Create a personal approach.
- Describe feelings. Feelings can be powerful and have impact when used appropriately and coupled with a feedback message.
- Listening skills. Encourage others to express opinions and then really listen. Ask open-ended questions.
No matter the resource you use, developing your ability to provide more effective feedback is a gift – not only to your employees, but to your own professional and personal development.
If Pfautz Consulting Group, LLC can help you or your team develop more effective feedback strategies, please contact us.
Submitted by Deborah M. McCormick