One of the greatest tasks of a leader is the competence and commitment development of the team members who are in charge of guiding and leading the team. This is the most noble, as well as the most responsible function of a leader. The main tool used for the achievement of the aforementioned advantages is feedback, that is, providing information on the manner and outcomes of work. Nevertheless, the most common obstacle in the development of team members is inadequate and insufficient provision of feedback, as well as its negative perception, according to which feedback is considered a trigger for stress. The above-mentioned reasons are exactly why I am often contacted by clients asking about the organisation of trainings aimed to strengthen the feedback culture.
The following guidelines will help you to strengthen the feedback culture in your organisation and to provide a healthy work atmosphere which will help each team member to feel noticed and have the opportunity to make progress and reach their full potential.
Feedback, anytime and anywhere
When clients come and see me for the first time, while attending feedback training, I notice that feedback is not an integral part of their daily business communication, but that it happens either when given by periodic organisational processes or when too many situations have accumulated that needed to be resolved much sooner, which generates a huge amount of stress to both the leader and the team member. The first and basic guideline in developing feedback culture is to encourage feedback to become an integral part of everyday business interactions. This creates an atmosphere in which your team members are used to being noticed, but also used to the fact that feedback is no longer a trigger for stress, but an integral part of cooperation.
Feedback, for better or for worse
I often notice that feedback is more often given when things are not done in a way that is considered well enough, and less often when someone is doing their job well. Feedback is equally as important in both of these examples — in situations where team members are doing their job successfully, as well as in situations when they are not doing their job as efficiently as needed. This creates an optimal balance in assessing the perception of feedback because your team members will probably think the following: “If my leader respects and praises my quality work, and equally emphasises its shortcomings, their judgements are based on good reasoning.”
Always keep feedback specific
My clients often complain that they cannot give praise to everybody and all the time for every assignment that they perform in a quality manner. And that is not the point. Constant praise is not what feedback is about. Team members need to be monitored and observed, in order to clearly define activities, methods and behaviours that lead to satisfactory results in case of decent work performance, progress, additional effort or proactivity. Then, feedback is provided in a timely manner, but it also enables positive practices to be established and team members to be able to apply them in a faster and easier way.
Negative feedback must be constructive
The type of feedback that makes things difficult to most people is the one in which insufficient work must be communicated to a team member. Our discomfort in the mentioned situation is carried into the conversation and makes an already demanding communication even more difficult. In such cases, we often express ourselves awkwardly, and the team member in question may experience feedback as a form of attack on their person and their personality. To give sovereign and calm negative feedback, striving not to be perceived as an attack but as a constructive criticism (which is what you actually wanted to achieve), check out the following tips:
1. Specify a certain behaviour or activity:
- explain a certain behaviour or activity of a certain person which was seen as less than satisfactory as precisely as possible;
- state exactly what this person had done without making judgements regarding their intentions and labelling them.
2. Clearly define the effect of the mentioned behaviour or activity:
- explain the reason due to which a certain behaviour or activity do not meet your expectations;
- explain the consequences of a certain behaviour or activity on job performance, team members and business.
3. Specify exactly what you would like for this person to change in their behaviour:
- suggest the ways in which progress can be made as clearly and specifically as possible.
4. Ask questions like:
- How do you view this situation?
- What do you think was efficient, and what can be improved?
- Do you have any ideas on how to make in more efficient in the future?
The greatest thing that a leader can give to their team members is the feedback on what they are doing right and what they can improve. This is how you build the self-confidence and competence of the people you lead on a solid foundation and strengthen their motivation to realise their potential, providing them with timely and clearly defined guidelines.
Want to learn how to give and receive effective feedback and/or create and strengthen a feedback culture in your organization?