In my corporate career, there was a time when I felt uneasy about giving negative feedback. For feedback to be effective, I believed it needed to be positive and encouraging. I assumed that nobody would want to hear feedback that made them feel less about themselves or demotivated. My mentor at INSEAD helped me see that negative feedback can actually be a learning moment. How these opportunities are presented is what makes the difference. He advised us to be “hard-on issues, soft-on people.” This was a great advice that helped me realize how you can and should treat improvement areas as growth opportunities.
What is stopping us from giving feedback?
A survey in The Harvard Business Review revealed that one out of two managers dislikes giving feedback.
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44% thought that giving feedback to developmental issues was difficult or stressful.
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21% confessed that they don't give feedback to their employees.
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37% of respondents admitted in self-assessment that they don’t provide positive reinforcement.
Anna Carrol is the author How To Give Everyday Feedback to Accelerate Your Team's Success. She says that feedback has always been fraught in fear, avoidance, or fight-or-flight stress. Personality tendencies like the desire to be liked and reluctance of triggering others' emotions play a part.
Managers of Millennials who were promoted quickly often have to deal with the unique challenge of being able to supervise older people or their peers. Carrol says that they have difficulty with not only giving feedback but also redefining their relationships and setting expectations. Remaining silent can hurt your credibility as a leader and reduce your effectiveness.
Reasons Not to Give Feedback Vs. Liberating Reality
We can overcome our fears about giving feedback if we are able to do so. Feedback helps us improve our relationships and results.
If you give feedback …., it will improve engagement (
Feedback is not only important for productivity, but also for employee satisfaction. According to a Gallup report The State and American Manager: Analytics, Advice and Leadership, employees who have regular meetings with their managers and receive feedback were three times more likely than those who don't. Great managers are more than just telling employees what they should do and leaving it at that. They regularly talk to employees about their responsibilities, and how they are doing. They do not save these important conversations for their once-a-year performance review.
It is best to give feedback within a strengths-based culture. We don't only talk to employees when there is a problem. We also tell them what we like about them and what they should change. We are alwaysconnecting with our team members and using feedback to uncover their strengths, improve their skills, and assign tasks or roles where they excel.
Does that mean we don’t give negative feedback? No! Corrective action is an integral part of the larger coaching process. Employees know this. We speak with them often and are equally quick to praise and motivate, so even negative feedback can still be seen as positive. “My company, my leader and my job all help me grow.”
We give feedback all the time, regardless of whether it is appreciated
Giving feedback is not something you can do. Giving feedback is not something you can do.
We cannot refuse to give feedback. Dignen warns that if we believe we're not doing it we are a dangerous communicator. It means we are not managing messages and relationships effectively.”
It is up to us, leaders, whether we see feedback as an essential skill that has a real business impact. It is essential that we learn to give feedback and make it part of our daily work routines.
Grow can help you improve the feedback process in your team. Grow allows teams to give and receive feedback by providing a place for collaboration and self-awareness. The feedback can be used to create development plans, goals and monitor progress. The proven Grow methodology was developed by INSEAD experts and used by top teams all over the world.
Grow allows you to treat feedback as a gift.
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Rudi Ramin originally published this article on LinkedIn
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The proven Grow methodology has been successfully used by top teams all over the world to improve team dynamics. Click the link to learn more.
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By: Rudi Ramin
Title: How To Give Feedback With Confidence
Sourced From: grow360.com/blog/how-to-give-feedback-with-confidence-1
Published Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:01:00 +0000