“What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letter: abcdef? Answer: Feedback. Don’t forget that feedback is one of the essential element of good communication.”
– Anonymous
Feedback can motivate individuals and teams, open lines of communication, foster employee’s professional development, and increase employee engagement. Providing feedback to employees has a tremendous impact on its effect. These are the following strategies to deliver feedback.
Time it Right
Feedback is generally most effective when it is delivered when the event or issue is fresh in both parties’ memory.
Prepare
Take the time to prepare for feedback and use facts, examples, and statistics to prove your references to particularly on the positive side or issues on the negative side.
Ditch the “Sandwich Approach”
Sandwich’s feedback method consists of praise followed by corrective feedback followed by more praise. In order to provide effective feedback, make sure it is authentic.
Understand the Power of Feedback
Negative feedback packs a far stronger punch than positive feedback. Leaders need to be aware of its effects on an employee’s well-being and productivity.
Don’t assume that everyone wants only positive feedback
Feedback might not always be accurate, and end up evaluating employees unfairly. The positive feedback that points out areas, where an employee can improve, might be misinterpreting the employee as a lecture which can reduce the employee’s morale and motivation.
Avoid Gender (and other) Biases
Effective employees’ feedback is based on equal standards fairly applied across gender lines, age brackets, and races.
3 Key Components of Effective Feedback:
The Behaviour: What the employee did and how they did it.
The Outcome: What resulted from the employee’s behaviour and how it impacted the team and the company.
The Next Steps: How to maintain positive outcomes, improve average outcomes, or work to solve negative ones.
Providing effective feedback is critical to maintaining a capable workforce. Feedback main component is acquiring accurate information to fuel feedback decisions. There are four types of feedback.
Negative Feedback
Negative feedback is something most employees hope to avoid their employer. It generally signals that the employee has not completed all aspects of improvement.
Positive Feedback
Positive feedback makes employees feel valued, motivating them to keep up the good work.
Negative Feedforward
Negative feedforward focuses on behavior that should be avoided in the future.
Positive Feedforward
Positive feedforward focuses on behavior that will improve performance in the future.
Feedback is essential to success at every organization level, but not all types of feedback are created equal. Giving feedback can be difficult, and everyone responds to feedback differently so it is crucial to be able to deliver it in a way that the person being assessed is comfortable with. Here is how feedback is given and received in an organization.
Build a Trusting Relationship
Having a good relationship receives better feedback with the person delivering it.
Keep your Criticism Private
Don’t voice your criticisms; just make sure they’re heard by the intended recipient only.
Make sure it’s Constructive and Thoughtful
Don’t use feedback as a weapon to put someone on their guard.
Don’t Be Shy
Giving feedback can be tough, but it’s necessary on the path to improvement.
Make sure your intent is clear
Make sure the recipient knows why you’re giving particular feedback. Stating why you’re sharing your thoughts and what you hope the recipient will do with the feedback goes a long way.
Great feedback is a critical element of best-practice performance management. Giving and receiving feedback is a powerful tool in the workplace. Feedback should be given and received in all directions in a hierarchy: from peers to peers, from employees to managers, managers to employees. Feedback is commonly known to be positive or negative.
