Feedback…we like to talk about it a lot, but how well are we providing it? It’s wonderful to be able to provide feedback to employees when they do something well or achieve something great. Positive, praising feedback makes the employee feel good and the manager feel good. Having the ability to reinforce that positive feedback with a reward system also provides good endorphins.
Where many leaders fall down is in providing feedback that can help an employee improve their performance or behavior. It can be an uncomfortable situation because it requires an employee to focus on areas that are not fully developed in himself or herself. Many times, an employee may even have a blind spot and not recognize that there’s something he or she needs to develop.
One day, at work, I was walking with a colleague and she told me she needed to provide some “negative feedback” to one of her employees. The comment stopped me in my tracks. As we discussed the situation further, I realized that what she really meant was that she needed to provide constructive feedback to an employee to help the person grow and develop. This is very different from “negative feedback.” The employee had some negative behaviors to correct, and the feedback required was positive for that employee’s growth and development. It wasn’t apparent to me in the conversation that the employee even realized that her behavior was not where it should be to meet her leader’s expectations. The leader owed this employee the constructive feedback. In this leader’s follow-up discussion with the employee, the focus needed to be that both the employee and leader knew that there could be a successful outcome in making the necessary improvements.
I regularly ask for feedback on how I can improve my performance and behavior. Often, the response from my leaders has been, “keep doing what you’re doing.” Albeit, that is some kind of feedback, it’s not sufficient feedback to enhance growth and improvement for an employee and/or a product. This statement implies that I’m doing a perfect job, but as all of us know, there is always room for growth.
As leaders, we owe employees this constructive feedback. Everyone has opportunities to improve. Any feedback needs to be given with dignity and respect for the employee. Often, that employee may not even realize areas where they may have shortcomings. These constructive conversations can lead to training and coaching opportunities that an employee may not have sought out without the conversations.
Building a company culture of employee development, coaching, mentoring and regular feedback can foster a healthy environment where constructive feedback is embraced and not feared. Constructive feedback should be the norm in one-on-one conversations with employees. Improvement should be a way of life for every employee in a business. Knowing what to improve upon is a necessity to achieve better employee performance and product results. Without this culture, the only expected outcome is the status quo.
Beyond the General 