A Guest Post by Julie Petersen
One of the most important aspect of running a successful company is the ability to provide constructive and meaningful feedback to your employees, and doing so in a way that won’t cause them to respond defensively. Instead of getting them to shut down and check out, you need to keep them engaged and motivated, because the goal of feedback is to help employees improve their performance and grow as professionals, and in turn, contributing to the success of the company.
Here are 5 ways how you can provide better feedback to your employees.
1. Provide Feedback on a Regular Basis
Providing regular feedback can be a challenging task, especially if you are trying to run a large company. Yes, you will often organize meetings and presentations where you will share goals and strategy of the company with your employees, but in order for it to be effective, they need to be able to relate to those goals and realize how their performance fits into all of that.
You can bridge this gap by allowing middle management to divide larger goals into tasks your employees can relate to, as well as by letting them provide regular feedback.
2. Adopt the Right Attitude
Whether you are trying to provide positive or negative feedback, the most important thing is the way you will deliver it. You need to have a supportive attitude when approaching your employee.
In all likelihood, they will already know they haven’t done a good job, and if you approach them with negativity and criticism, they will become defensive, and their motivation will be non-existent. In order to avoid that, provide constructive criticism, but in a way that demonstrates your support and help. That way, they will respond positively and won’t feel discouraged afterwards.
3. Be Specific
Keep in mind that every feedback needs to be specific. That means you need to be aware of what sort of action your employee took, and the consequences of such action. Only then can you analyze their performance and provide them with feedback that will help them improve their performance. In other words, they need to know what they did wrong, so that they know what to avoid in the future and learn from their mistakes. Speaking in broad terms will not help them much, because they need specifics in order to progress further.
4. Build a Relationship with Your Employees
If you already have a good relationship with your employees that is based on respect and support, every time you provide feedback for them, either positive or negative, they will view it as a sign that you care about them and your relationship.
Make sure that you also focus on the good things that your worker has done, along with the negative ones. Rest assured, they will do their best not to let you down next time.
5. Feedback Works Both Ways
In every successful company, feedback is a two-way street. This means you need to allow for employee feedback, as well, as they will tell you if the goals you have set for the company are realistic.
Most managers will set objectives for the company, without taking into account if those objectives are reasonable, which results in most employees deciding right off the bat that that particular strategy won’t be feasible. Being on the receiving end of the feedback process means you will always be able to set goals which are correct and which will engage your employees, instead of having them check out.
Conclusion
Creating an environment where feedback is welcome and valued is not easy, but if you follow these tips, you will be able to do so, and get the most out of your employees, and lead the company successfully into the future.
About the Author:
Julie Petersen is a blogger who features the latest educational and career trends in her articles. At the present time she is running her educational blog where she shares her AskPetersen essay services reviews, samples, guides. She is also working on her first ebook dedicated to online learning.
Also published on Medium.
