Feedback is one of the best ways to boost employee motivation. By avoiding these 5 mistakes, you will be able to use the benefits of feedback at work.
Feedback mistake 1: Not giving feedback often enough
Imagine using a fitness tracker. Imagine going for a run every day for a year. And now imagine your fitness tracker doing the following: Throughout the year it doesn’t give you any information about how many miles you ran or how much time you spent running. It doesn’t even let you know if it tracked your activity. Then after one year, it picks – what seems to you – 2 random days of the year, and lets you know that on march first you only ran half a mile which is disappointing but your time on September 30th was good.
How would you feel about this fitness tracker? Would you feel like it’s helping you to know exactly how you are doing? Would you feel like it coaches you through your journey and helps you to get better? Would you keep it? Probably not.
So why do we still think that giving team members or employees feedback once a year is enough?
Feedback is one of the main, if not THE main source of motivation. We all want to be seen, grow, and develop.
How come you don’t give feedback often enough and how to avoid it?
You don’t have enough time as a leader
Try a 1-minute-feedback: Feedback isn’t just those 3 hours long annual performance reviews. Feedback is telling someone you appreciated the examples in their presentation because they made it very easy for you to follow. Whenever somebody does something that contributes to the team’s or company’s success, let them know. It may seem small but it makes all the difference.
You don’t see your team members often enough
Whenever I have experienced that situation in a client’s team we ended up talking about splitting the group (if the team is very big), getting a co-leader, or giving up the leadership position.
Leadership takes time. If you realize you don’t see your team members often enough to know how they are doing, chances are you are not present enough in your team.
You don’t know how to give feedback
Feedback is something fun to learn. Many leaders mistake feedback with negative feedback or conflict. Feedback is so much more. It’s motivating your team members, creating a positive atmosphere, developing a culture of growth, and discovering strengths.
Start out by giving positive feedback. It is fun and if you make a feedback-mistake (see mistake number 2) nobody gets mad.
Feedback mistake 2: Talking about personality traits instead of behavior
“You are very responsible!” – That seems like great feedback in the workplace, right?
Well, the problem is, it’s talking about personality instead of behavior. An easy trick to find out the quality of your feedback is turning it around.
“You are very irresponsible!” – Chances are somebody hearing that is going to defend themselves and having trouble accepting that kind of statement.
Why? Because it attacks the personality and whenever you tell somebody how they are you make it seem like they can’t change. Personality is hard to change, behavior is not.
What to do instead
What did this person do that made you think that they responsible or irresponsible? Click on the video below to see a few examples of how to do that!
Feedback mistake 3: Talking too long when giving feedback
Ok, let me rephrase that: Not talking long enough when giving positive feedback and talking too long when giving negative feedback.
What do I mean with that? Positive feedback is often confused with quick praise. “Good job!” is nice to hear and way better than not saying anything but telling someone what they actually did and what impact that had is so powerful!
Now to the negative feedback: One aspect I train in leadership coaching often is not to get lost in detail when giving negative feedback.
“Hey Phil, do you have a minute? […] Great, thanks! Listen, Sarah just called and said she didn’t receive an answer for an e-mail she sent 3 days ago. Do you remember the situation? What led to her not getting an answer? […] Yeah, I totally understand, we have all been swamped lately. For me, it’s important that clients hear from us within one workday. What I would ask you to do is to forward e-mails to me when you realize you are not going to be able to answer them within a day. Is that possible for you? […] Perfect, thanks!”
No need to go on and on for 30 minutes about how Phil didn’t answer Sarah.
What to do instead
Think about what it’s really about! Do you want to offer great customer service? Talk about that more than about the mistake someone made. Being quick, on point, and focused on a solution, makes it a normal and easy experience for you and your team.
Feedback mistake 4: Choosing the wrong time or place
This applies rather to negative feedback and some things are more obvious than others. Not giving negative feedback in front of others for example is already quite common. What many leaders forget is what happens after. Imagine telling someone at 8 AM that they often have an unpleasant smell. After you told them they have to stay all day in the office. Another example of bad timing: criticizing someone’s work just before an important meeting with a client.
What to do instead
Choose time and place carefully. Just think about what would you want if you were at the receiving end of that feedback. If the feedback is negative and could be difficult to accept schedule the conversation so that the receiver of the feedback can go home afterward.
Feedback mistake 5: Not getting into the right mindset
Imagine someone telling you “I just care about you!” but their nonverbal cues scream “You are getting on my nerves!”
If verbal and nonverbal messages don’t match, we tend to believe the nonverbal cues because we know they are harder to fake.
What does that mean for giving feedback? All the communication tips and feedback strategies don’t help you if you have the wrong mindset.
What to do instead
Think about: Why do you want to give feedback? Do you want them to become more successful and that is why you are speaking up? Or are you actually frustrated with them and just wish they wouldn’t create problems?
It’s very normal to experience the second situation, it’s just not a good situation to give feedback in. Reflect a bit longer on the situation or realize you are having a conflict with the other person and address it as a conflict. What does that mean? Don’t pretend you are just saying something to make them better. Don’t pretend you are just giving feedback and they should be grateful because feedback is a gift.
Instead tell them, that what they are doing is interfering in a negative way with what you or the company needs, and you would like to find a solution that works for both of you.
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