7 Signs of Insanely Awesome Feedback
Feedback touches every aspect of our lives. Regardless of what you do, there will inevitably come a time when you are in a situation that warrants you giving or receiving feedback. As you begin to lead people, it becomes imperative that you can give constructive feedback to your team. However, as an HR professional, I have taken part in coaching sessions in which managers became noticeably agitated when asked to provide feedback to a member of their team. It was something that I had to really coach them through; especially, new leaders who hadn’t yet developed their style for delivering feedback.
Receiving feedback is a vital part of the employee experience. Therefore, leaders must become comfortable giving feedback. If done right, feedback can lower turnover and lead to a more productive and engaged workforce. If done wrong, it can have a devastating effect on moral, increase turnover, and leave your workforce actively disengaged. In a study conducted by OfficeVibe, companies that implemented regular feedback systems had 14.9% lower turnover rates. The same study found that 4 out of 10 employees are actively disengaged when they get little to no feedback. Additionally, the study found that 65% of employees actually want more feedback. If employees are begging for feedback, why aren’t leaders giving them what they want?
The truth is that giving insanely awesome feedback takes work. In comparison to all the other things placed on a leader’s plate, feedback often takes a place on the back burner. However, it doesn’t have to. With a little planning and practice, feedback can become second nature. Below I share the signs of Insanely Awesome Feedback and how you can ensure that the feedback you give enlightens and inspires the recipient.
Insanely Awesome Feedback is:
Reflective: We are all busy and it may seem like it’s better to deliver something vs. nothing. Trust me, it isn’t. If you’re going to deliver feedback, make sure you take the appropriate amount of time to reflect on the individual and gather your thoughts. There is nothing worse than being on the receiving end of feedback that isn’t meaningful. OfficeVibe reports that 83% of Millennials say the feedback they receive from managers is not meaningful. That’s a large percentage of our workforce not reaping the benefits of insanely awesome feedback!
Action: Prior to your feedback session, block some time for you to spend alone. Use the time to think about the person and how this feedback can best help them in their development. Jot down a few notes relating to behaviors you have observed that support the feedback you are giving. Don’t be in a rush to deliver feedback on the spot. If someone asks you for feedback. Request that they give you time to reflect. Schedule time after you reflect to discuss the feedback with the individual. By doing so, you will ensure that you make the feedback meaningful.
Focused: We all have multiple development opportunities. However, as the term goes, you can’t boil the ocean. Delivering feedback that list out every fault a person has is insensitive and serves no purpose. The receiver is going to get overwhelmed at best and angry at worse.
Action: Drill down your feedback to 1 or 2 items that the person can focus on. To be fair, we can only tackle a few development opportunities at a time. Set the person up for success by recognizing this and adjusting your feedback accordingly.
Relevant: Feedback should be relevant and based on recent observable behavior. Hashing up old things that a person has already worked through is just frustrating. Also, feedback sessions should not just focus on negative aspects of someone’s behavior. Feedback sessions are a great time to focus on the things that your employees are doing right. People want to have their hard work recognized. If you’ve seen improvements acknowledge the improvement during a feedback session. That’s a great time to celebrate wins!
Action: Check your feedback to ensure that you aren’t harboring any lingering biases based on past behavior. If you can’t tie the feedback to recent events, then it’s probably not relevant any longer. Ensure that the feedback you give is balanced. It shouldn’t be all negative all the time. Find the positive things to highlight as well.
Reveals blind spots: Utilize feedback to shine the light on misalignment of how the person may perceive themselves vs. how others perceive them. This can be very valuable because people often see themselves differently than how others see them. Being candid about the discrepancy can help the individual in several ways. If the misalignment is in the employees favor, providing feedback can build confidence. Discovering that your colleagues are rating you in a particular area higher than you have rated yourself can boost your morale . When the misalignment is not in the employee’s favor, providing feedback creates an opportunity clear up those blind spots that have the potential to trip us up if we aren’t careful.
Action: When receiving third party feedback, weigh the feedback to ensure that it is unbiased and based on facts. Share the feedback in a way that helps the person receiving pinpoint the misalignment. For example, you could lead with, I often hear you say that you are disorganized; however, the feedback I’m receiving from your colleagues is that you always show up to meetings organized and ready to contribute.
Actionable: This step is everything! Feedback that isn’t actionable is worthless. I can’t say it enough. Please do not give someone feedback that they can’t do anything with. Feedback should be specific and tied to recent behavior to allow the person to come up with a plan to correct the behavior. When feedback isn’t actionable it leaves the employee with more questions than answers and can just lead to frustration.
Action: Make sure your feedback is based tied to a recent observed behavior and that you can articulate what the desired behavior is and why. Also, give people room to find their own way of doing things and don’t utilize feedback as a way to force someone to do things your way. Remember, there are many ways to do something. Your way isn’t the only way it’s just your way.
Timely: Don’t wait weeks or months to give someone feedback. For feedback to be most effective, it needs to be timely. So, what is timely? Feedback should be given as close to the event as possible. Otherwise it loses its impact. OfficeVibe’s study suggests that 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week. Waiting to the end of the review cycle to dump a year’s worth of feedback on someone is going to backfire. It’s not fair to the employee and it kills morale.
Action: Get in the habit of making feedback a priority. Schedule regular meetings with your staff and be willing to have impromptu meetings if the situation warrants it. What shows up on an employee’s performance evaluation should not be a surprise.
Sincere: Finally, your feedback should come from a place of caring and a sincere desire to help the individual improve. If people don’t feel like you are sincere they are likely to shut down and the feedback will go in one ear and out of the other.
Action: Spend time getting to know people beyond the day to day work projects. Find out who they are as a person. Discover what motivates them and check in from time to time just to see how they are doing.
As you begin to get in the habit of providing Insanely Awesome Feedback, your team will begin to reap the rewards. Employees like to know where they stand. By providing feedback, you take the guesswork out of the equation. Feedback ensures that you and your employees are aligned on performance and gives employees tangible things to work on in regard to their development. Sixty-nine percent of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized (OfficeVibe). So, take the time to provide the feedback that your employees so desperately want and need. You can expect to see better collaboration, increased engagement, and a team working towards accomplishing the same results.
