Feedback in the Workplace
Individuals with leadership skills can provide effective feedback, both positive and constructive.
Feedback is part of the communication between people in the organization and consists of a conversation where a professional receives an assessment of their behavior in their professional environment, their performance, their abilities, their strengths, and their areas for improvement.
Many leaders forget to give feedback to their teams, don’t do it often enough, or don’t do it properly. When they do, they often focus exclusively on what is not going well and needs to change. This approach can make it seem like you only care about your team members for their results, and not for their human potential and the value they can bring to the team.
Providing feedback effectively to your team members and others in the organization is challenging, especially if the feedback is negative. However, it’s crucial to develop the skills to have effective feedback conversations with your team members.
Benefits of Delivering Effective Feedback
The benefits of providing effective feedback include:
- Improving Team Performance and Productivity: By offering insights that help your team members feel more secure about their contributions, you can increase their impact on overall results, making them more efficient.
- Fostering Good Communication: Feedback provides an excellent opportunity to show that you value your team members, which improves communication between leaders and their teams. It also shows that you care about their professional and personal growth and well-being.
- Strengthening Interpersonal Relationships and Trust: Communication based on respect brings you closer to your team members and builds trust.
- Reaching Agreements: Feedback helps to reach agreements that enable the team to achieve set goals.
- Increasing Motivation and Energy: When team members feel important and recognized for their performance, their motivation and energy levels rise.
- Improving Workplace Climate and Well-being: Addressing difficult situations constructively, by providing solutions and measuring points, enhances the work environment and the well-being of individuals.
As you can see, the ability to provide effective feedback is highly valued by employees. In fact, 87% of employees appreciate receiving regular feedback for their professional development. Additionally, giving feedback properly will help you gain influence and build trust with your team members.
How to Give Feedback: Actionable Tips
Here are some actionable tips that will be very useful for you and your team members:
👉 Focus on the Problem, Not the Person
Avoid making feedback a confrontation directed at the person. Focus on the problem, performance, and its consequences, and work together to find solutions, especially if you focus on concrete and specific real-life cases. The goal is to improve what the person does, not who they are.
👉 Set a Clear Objective for Your Feedback
Ask yourself why you want to give this feedback. What do you hope to achieve? The objective might be to train in an area, conduct a performance review, motivate someone for a task or project, comment on inappropriate behavior, request greater involvement, etc.
👉 The Timing and Setting Matter
Knowing what you want to convey and why is important, but so is choosing the right time and place for the conversation to flow smoothly for both the giver and receiver of the feedback. Feedback should be given in private. Telling someone something negative in front of colleagues can make them feel emotionally attacked, and you can’t expect a positive reaction.
If the person is stressed for any reason, whether personal or professional, it’s not a good time to give feedback. Wait for a more opportune moment—don’t delay it too long, but it can usually wait.
👉 Listen to Your Team Member
Practice empathy and listen. You might start by asking how they feel and what they think they are excelling at or contributing most to the team. Then, ask about areas they believe they could improve.
Remember that feedback is part of a conversation. Don’t provide feedback via email, Slack, or WhatsApp, as it should be a dialogue with input from your team member to reach improvement agreements.
👉 Be Their Ally, Not Their Enemy
Discuss your expectations regarding their performance and the purpose of the feedback. Ensure it is a conversation, not a monologue, and work together to define concrete tasks and objectives. Offer your help to achieve these goals and grow professionally, and seek their commitment to the agreed-upon actions.
📒Practical Exercise: How to Give Effective Feedback
Here’s a practical exercise to practice giving feedback with a 7-step structure:
- Ask for Permission to Give Feedback
- Ask Your Team Member How They Are Doing
- Describe Specific Facts
- State Your Expectations
- Listen to Their Opinions
- Establish Agreements
- Offer Your Help
Example:
“Amalia, do you have a few minutes to talk? I’d like to give you some feedback.
How are you doing with [specific topic]? What do you think you are excelling at?
I want to mention that in the last three meetings, you seemed distracted, attending to your computer, writing, not participating, and not committing to specific tasks.
It’s important for everyone that you are more participative in these meetings because your opinions are very relevant to the team, and achieving our individual goals benefits the whole team.
What do you think about this?
I understand what you’re saying, and if you agree, we can… Do you agree?
How can I help you achieve this?”
We hope you find this exercise useful and recommend discussing it with your coach, either via the platform’s chat or in your next session, to get the most out of it. If you’re not familiar with Mindbly yet, you can schedule a demo here.
