Providing constructive feedback to your employees gives them with an insight into how their performance is progressing. However, for many of us, just the very thought of obtaining feedback creates anxiety and sometimes we get defensive, even before the event!

 

As employers, it’s our responsibility to give feedback. Yes, this delicate process can also create anxiety for the ‘giver”; however, its value in helping to identify issues and solve them is priceless. Employers must approach the feedback session in a positive way so that it can do what it’s intended to do: Help improve and grow your business.

Here are five hints that can get you on track to giving productive, useful and positive feedback:

1. Create a safe environment. Meet in a private place away from others. It’s not easy preventing “uncomfortableness” however; you can do your best to create a space that is non-threatening. You don’t have to be all “buddy-buddy” with an employee, however, stay calm and civil with your feedback approach. Don’t be mean-spirited. Your feedback usually won’t be productive if it’s focused on making the other person feel bad or make them look foolish in front of peers. Instead, create opportunities to build confidence and skills. This is especially effective when people are expecting to be graded.

2. Stay positive.Give at least as much positive feedback as you do negative. Positive feedback stimulates the reward center in the brain, “it feels good” – leaving the listener in a good frame of mind. Turn your negative feedback into “corrective” feedback. Give solid examples of what they did and how they could have improved the outcome indicate the adjustments that need in order to move forward. You don’t need to avoid negative, feedback altogether. Just make sure you follow it up with a suggested solution or outcome. Staff need to know how they can improve.3. Clear communication.

Staff generally respond better to specific, positive direction. Avoid saying things like, “You need to be more helpful with customers” It’s too “general” and ambiguous, and can be interpreted in a lot of personal ways. Provide specific examples and spin in the positive by perhaps saying, “You greet the customers with a great smile, I can see that they like you,  I also want to see that you can be of more assistance to them, you might ask them “is there anything else I can get for you?”

4. Be immediate.

Talk early, talk often, talk in private – The adult brain learns best by being caught in action. If you wait three months to tell someone that his or her performance is average, he or she usually can’t grasp the changes needed in order to change direction. It’s far too ambiguous and relies on memory, which can be faulty. Useful and productive feedback requires providing regular feedback. That way, performance reviews are just another discussion, not something to be feared

5. Be firm and fair.  Remain as objective as you can. When staff need a bit of re-diretion,and you have to give him or her feedback, start by asking his or her perspective on the situation. Resist saying how stupid his or her actions were, even if they were really silly.

Next, provide the objective, specific, forward-moving type of feedback outlined earlier. Ask them if they have understood what you both discussed, even ask them to summarise what they think they heard! That way you can both be sure that you are on the same page.  Ensure you have a current job description that outlines in writing what your expectations are. Signing off on the discussion may be a good way to cement the understanding and have something to refer back to at your next meeting with them.