Afghan Wireless knows that strong companies are built by strong employees. That’s why AWCC is proud to sponsor a broad range of educational and professional development programs designed to help its employees take their skills and capabilities to the highest level.
But regardless of whether or not a company has formal employee development programs in place, there’s one step that companies of any size can take to help their employees grow and improve: giving feedback. A great motivational tool, feedback can serve to recognize the good work that employees are doing, provide advice and guidance as to where they need to improve, and remind them of their value to the company as both workers and people.
But some ways of giving feedback are more productive than others. The following tips can help managers and supervisors make sure their feedback, whether positive remarks or constructive criticism, is as effective as possible, and leads to employee growth and improvement.
Don’t wait.
Waiting too long is one of the most common mistakes managers make when it comes to giving feedback. Feedback makes the biggest impact when it’s given right away, so don’t wait for the annual performance review to roll around before praising an employee’s performance or addressing a problem with their work. As soon as a situation or event occurs, positive or negative, make time to give feedback promptly; otherwise, whatever it is you wanted to talk about will fade from everyone’s memories before you have the chance to bring it up.
Prepare yourself.
It’s important to ensure that you’re giving feedback in the right frame of mind, so take the time to check in with your emotions before meeting with your employee. If you are feeling upset or angry about a recent problem, you may need to give yourself a bit of time to cool off so that the meeting doesn’t become a hostile confrontation.
Keep it confidential.
The best setting for delivering feedback is in a one-on-one meeting. Criticism should never be given publicly, as it forces an employee into a defensive stance and can make a problematic situation even worse. Likewise, positive feedback is better delivered in private; some employees do not like being the center of attention and will feel uncomfortable if they are singled out for praise in front of their colleagues. Regardless of whether the feedback is positive or critical, a one-on-one meeting can make the employee more receptive to sharing their thoughts on the situation, facilitating a deeper discussion.
Be specific.
Employee feedback should be crystal clear, to the point, and task focused. General or ambiguous criticism, like “Your performance needs to be better,” will leave employees with little idea of what exactly the problem is or what they can do to improve it.
Similarly, general praise, like “Good work on the report,” might make an employee feel good at the moment, but it doesn’t let them know what specific qualities you value and want to see more of.
Keep the focus on performance.
Be sure that your feedback focuses on an employee’s performance and not on their personality; in other words, you need discuss what they are doing rather than what they are like. It can sometimes be difficult to keep these two areas separate, particularly if you are dealing with an employee you find challenging, but suggesting that the employee needs to change their personality will not go over well. Instead, focus on the behavior that the personality trait may be causing. For example, rather than saying that you find your employee to be too arrogant in meetings, try letting them know that it’s a problem for you when they interrupt you in front of clients or other colleagues.
Stick to the facts.
It’s important never to make assumptions when giving feedback. If you need to talk to an employee about a task that they performed poorly, for example, keep your discussion limited to what you witnessed and steer clear of speculating about why the task was not done well. Like criticizing behavior rather than personality, providing feedback on outcomes rather than motives—like what happened as a result of a task being performed poorly, for example—helps keep the situation focused on actionable ways to improve.
Be open to responses.
Effective feedback is a two-way street. If you’re giving feedback to an employee, particularly if you’re addressing problems with their performance, you should give them an opportunity to speak up during your meeting. They may need to offer their perspective on the situation or ask questions to better grasp the issue under discussion. And because it might be difficult for employees to process what you’re saying without becoming overly defensive, it’s also a good idea to make it easy for your employee to get in touch with you after the meeting with any follow-up thoughts or questions.