When hearing the word “feedback”, many leaders, managers and employees think of the annual performance review. That is not surprising considering that, in some companies, the once-a-year performance review is the only opportunity employees get to receive feedback and even then, it is often vague and destructive to employee morale.
Why do we fail to provide enough feedback?
It’s uncomfortable. It’s awkward. It’s terrifying. It’s essential!
4 Startling Facts: Why Feedback is Essential
Fact #1: Feedback helps employees do their best work
Feedback provides a clear expectation of performance. In a Harvard Business Review study, 72% of employees said they thought their performance would improve if their managers would provide corrective feedback. For employees, learning what they do well increases their confidence. They are more likely to try more, stretch themselves and share their skills. In fact, in that same study, 57% of people preferred corrective feedback to just praise and recognition. Employees want to know: “How can I be better at my role? What can I change or improve? Employees want to be improving, and feedback helps them get there.
Fact #2: Feedback makes you a better leader
In a Forbes study, researchers found that leaders who gave honest feedback were rated as five times more effective than those who do not. In addition, leaders who gave honest feedback had employees who were rated as three times more engaged. Clearly, the more you give your team honest feedback, the more your team will view you in a positive manner.
Fact #3: Feedback creates a pipeline
Regular feedback on job performance and new skills promotes professional and personal growth as well as increasing an employee’s potential to assume greater levels of responsibility. In today’s environment where high performing talent is a competitive advantage, growing your internal talent is part of an effective business strategy.
According to a State of the Workforce report, by 2023, voluntary employee turnover is expected to rise to nearly 30%. As such, it is more important than ever before for organizations to have a rich culture of feedback.
Fact #4: Feedback improves retention
Two of the characteristic’s employees find most valuable in the workplace are development and career advancement. Effective feedback contributes to an employee’s development and potential for advancement. Employees tend to stay longer where there is opportunity and an investment in their success.
Feedback Process
Providing feedback can be a daunting and tricky process but it does not have to be this way. There are 5 simple and clear steps you can take to deliver feedback in a productive, useful and informative way.
Step 1: Prepare your feedback
Occasionally, you may be asked to provide feedback on the spot. If you are comfortable doing so, great. In other situations, ask for time to prepare your feedback and consider these points:
- Be considerate in your approach.
- Think about key pieces of information that you will share.
- Think about how you will deliver the feedback.For example, will it be face-to-face or by email?
- Provide clear examples that you can share to illustrate your points.
Step 2: Focus on your tone
Often it is not what we say to others that have an impact but how we say it.
If you are providing constructive feedback, ensure your tone is supportive and suggest ways to overcome challenges and/or to change behavior. As you prepare your feedback, consider these points:
- Be approachable, and empathetic.
- Help the other person find solutions, rather than dwelling on the development areas.
- Create a comfortable environment.
Step 3: Explore the facts & provide concrete examples
Sometimes, you might just be asked for your opinion and that is a valid point of view. However, if you are providing more formal or thorough feedback, then use examples to help the other person understand your point of view. Focusing on facts helps to make the feedback less personable and more objective. At this step:
- Gather various examples to provide a broad perspective rather than focusing on a one-off event.
- Distinguish between which parts of your feedback are your personal opinions and which parts are based on facts.
- Ask the other person for feedback.Do they see the events or situation in the same way?
Step 4: Listen
Delivering feedback is not a one-way exchange. It should be a collaborative process.
- Allow for processing time – leave time for the other person to digest the information and discuss their views at a later date.
- Ask for the other person’s perspective on your feedback and how it fits in with what others have said.
- Practice active listening and take the other person’s perspective into consideration.
Step 5: Create a forward focus
This is all about helping the other person understand how they can use the information that you have provided them with to develop a plan. The key is to use feedback to improve in the future. When creating a future focus:
- Frame feedback constructively.Frame your feedback in a way that is useful and can help the other person to make improvements.
- Focus on future opportunities.Use facts, data and examples but mostly focus on future opportunities.
- Explore how to improve.Help the other person to explore how they can use this information to improve or enhance their personal performance.
Effective feedback is productive, useful & informative.
Anyone can learn the art of giving feedback but that doesn’t mean it is easy or comes naturally to each of us. We often we think of providing feedback to others as a challenging experience but with practice and using the 5-step feedback process, you can begin to create a valuable feedback cycle that will improve your team and your organization’s performance.
Creating a Feedback Culture
A strong feedback culture provides benefits for companies of all types and size. Whether you are a small business or a more established company, the benefits of feedback can boost employee motivation and performance. Here are the key steps you should take in order to encourage a feedback culture.
Provide training to givers and receivers
Both giving and receiving feedback are skills. What’s more, they are skills that are rarely developed. To support feedback in your company, provide training and resources to your employees.
For all employees:
• Train them on asking questions, seeking examples, and clarifying meaning and intent.
• Help them understand their resistance to feedback.
• Develop their skills in goal setting.
For effective managers:
• Encourage them to openly seek feedback.
• Train them on how to communicate feedback effectively.
• Develop their skills in goal setting for employees.
Tone from the top
Like any element that you want to make part of your company culture, it starts at the top. Receiving and giving feedback must be modeled. Your leaders must hone these skills and set the example. They must ask for feedback and show that they receive it well. And they must do it again and again and again.
Communicate expectations around feedback
If giving and receiving feedback well is a quality that leadership seeks, then it must be made clear. Communicate, and communicate often. Set organizational expectations around what good feedback looks like in your company. Consider – Who gives it? Who receives it? How often does it occur? How do we do it? What is the goal of feedback? Make feedback part of your processes in onboarding, performance reviews and everyday conversations.
Feedback Culture is Good for Business Performance
When feedback is effectively given and received, it can be a powerful tool that improves professional skills, motivates employees, increases productivity and raises the profile of your company’s work culture. Once the foundation has been set, sustaining it will become easier and easier with each feedback dialogue between manager and employee. A company with a positive feedback culture is a company that can continually grow and thrive.
Is there an HR topic that you’d like to know more about? Let me know at bryon.smith@firstavehr.ca
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