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Tag: Employee Feedback

  • How to Give Constructive Feedback That Actually Changes People | Entrepreneur

    How to Give Constructive Feedback That Actually Changes People | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Providing good feedback to colleagues is important for professional and personal growth. Yet for many people, giving feedback can be uncomfortable and even anxiety-inducing. You worry about offending others, saying the “wrong” thing, or coming across as too critical. But avoiding difficult feedback conversations prevents opportunities for improvement and stagnates workplace performance. The key is learning how to structure and deliver feedback in a sensitive yet impactful manner.

    With practice, uncomfortable feedback discussions get easier, and you’ll see that thoughtfully pointing out both strengths and growth areas helps people develop, strengthens relationships and ultimately makes you a better colleague and leader.

    Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Use Effective Feedback to Stay Resilient and Agile

    Focus on behavior, not personality

    When providing feedback, focus on specific behaviors and actions that someone can change, rather the person’s innate qualities. For example, say “The last report had many typos and formatting errors” rather than “Your work is usually sloppy.” This keeps the feedback professional, constructive and actionable.

    Related: Employee Feedback Is Only Effective If It’s Done Right. Here’s How to Make Sure It Lands.

    Preserve the relationship

    Even necessary criticism should maintain the other person’s dignity and self-esteem. Start by acknowledging strengths and good intentions. Explain the purpose behind your comments. As I mentioned earlier, focus on the work, not the person.

    Four key principles underlie high-quality feedback:

    1. Specificity — Call out concrete examples of what the person did well or poorly. Saying “You did a great job” lacks meaning. But saying, “You handled that difficult client conversation very skillfully by focusing on shared interests,” will leave a more lasting impression.

    2. Timeliness — The sooner you give feedback, the more accurately the other person will remember the situation and the more useful your comments will be. Delays can lead to misunderstandings. Aim to provide feedback within a day or two of an event or interaction.

    If you frequently work with someone, aim to provide feedback on an ongoing or routine basis rather than just at major milestones. Regular feedback is also seen as more credible and encourages better habits early.

    3. Relevance — Your feedback should relate directly to the person’s work responsibilities and goals. Avoid getting personal or venturing into areas beyond your purview. Stick to professional issues that can be improved through feedback.

    4. Empathy — Showing genuine care and concern for the other person puts them at ease and makes them more receptive to your message. Start by acknowledging their good intentions, then explain how their approach could be refined.

    Provide honest yet tactful feedback that considers the other person’s feelings. Avoid shaming, harsh language or hyperbole — even if the feedback is critical. A more empathetic tone is kinder and keeps the discussion constructive. Phrases like “I know you put a lot of work into this but …” can soften critical feedback.

    Highlight specific examples

    Back up your feedback with concrete examples and specifics wherever possible. Saying, “Your presentation lacked structure” is vague, but “The introduction didn’t set up the topics in a logical order” points to a clearer action the person can take. Examples make the feedback feel real and highlight areas for improvement.

    Suggest alternative behaviors

    Don’t just point out what someone did wrong – also propose positive alternatives they could try next time. Saying, “You reacted aggressively during that exchange,” is less useful than “Taking a moment to calm down before responding likely would have produced a better outcome.” This gives the person practical options to implement your feedback.

    Related: 9 Ways That will Help Promote Actionable Feedback in Your Organization

    Be Solution-Focused

    Avoid dwelling on past mistakes and instead focus your feedback on finding constructive solutions. Phrases like “Next time, try ..” or “In the future, it would be better to … ” help make the feedback about moving forward productively. This keeps the discussion positive and solution-oriented.

    Use “I” statements and listen actively

    Frame your feedback using “I” statements that are less accusatory and more impartial. For example, “I felt the introduction lost people” instead of “You lost people with that introduction.” This makes the feedback about your perspective rather than an attack on the person. It also increases the chances they will be receptive.

    After giving your feedback, actively listen to the other person’s response and perspective. Ask open-ended questions, paraphrase what they say, and resist the urge to interrupt. This shows that you value their thoughts and are more interested in a genuine exchange than being “right.”

    Related: 10 Telltale Phrases That Indicate Somebody Isn’t Telling the Truth

    Follow up on progress

    After providing feedback, check in periodically to see if the person found it useful and how they plan to implement it. Offer additional suggestions or clarification if needed. This shows you’re invested in truly helping them improve, demonstrating your value as a colleague and mentor.

    With these principles in mind, your feedback will help others improve and reflect well on you as a thoughtful leader. If you’re looking for a more streamlined way to manage feedback and performance reviews for your team, consider using Hana Retail as your point-of-sale system.

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    Murali Nethi

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  • Why Creating a Feedback Culture is Vital to Business Survival | Entrepreneur

    Why Creating a Feedback Culture is Vital to Business Survival | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    A startup is among the most exciting workplaces in today’s business landscape. It suits problem solvers, people who love the challenge of figuring out how to get a promising idea off the ground. For others, what attracts them to a startup is the chance to be part of a company early on and see it through its growth stages.

    But since startup environments can be unpredictable, working at one requires grit, flexibility, and openness to feedback. The last is particularly important because it directly contributes to team members’ improvement. Feedback helps people understand why their actions bring certain outcomes. It also creates a team with a growth mindset.

    Welcoming feedback is also crucial for helping the company grow. Startups must be agile and adaptable. They must innovate rapidly to suit changing customer needs while staying ahead of others in the field. Without feedback, companies grow directionless and people stagnate.

    Related: How to Create a Culture of Feedback

    How positive feedback benefits employees

    It’s simple but often overlooked: a little positive feedback goes a long way. Acknowledging when employees work hard or deliver exceptional work will help them feel valued, and their efforts are seen. Positive feedback also creates stronger relationships—after all, who doesn’t like people who appreciate them?

    Why constructive criticism is necessary, but tricky

    While anyone would like it when their managers notice the good things they do, few people stay cheerful when others notice their shortcomings. Yet constructive feedback is an essential part of giving feedback. It can be difficult to deliver this type of criticism, though! To do this effectively, the first step is to focus on the behavior, not the person. The feedback a person receives should help them

    Constructive criticism is essential for growth but can be difficult to deliver effectively. It is important to focus on the behavior rather than the person. The manager should show–through words and actions–that they are giving this feedback to be supportive. The message should contain specific, actionable steps the recipient can take.

    Related: Open vs. Anonymous Employee Feedback — Which is Better?

    Why give feedback, anyway?

    I understand if managers or business owners might be reluctant to dedicate time to feedback. Especially in a startup, where there are endless things to do at any given moment. But letting your team know how they’re doing leads to better performance. When employees receive feedback, they better understand what you expect from them. So they can align their work with your requirements and the company’s broader goals.

    Employees who receive high-quality feedback also gain a sense of ownership over their work. They can better identify improvements in their processes, which helps them identify obstacles before they become too big to handle.

    For example, suppose you have a teammate who struggles with time management. Instead of telling them, “Just work faster,” which is vague and offers no actionable information, you could give specifics on how they can stay on-task. For starters, you could review their list of things to do and help them prioritize these by urgency. When you teach someone how to course-correct once, they won’t need repeated reminders in the future.

    And this goes for peers, too. Feedback among team members of the same rank will help them build stronger relationships. Having a team that can let each other know areas of improvement without anyone feeling slighted is a special thing. These open lines of communication also allow people to address misunderstandings before they escalate.

    Challenges of giving feedback in startups

    There are many pros, but there are also challenges in giving feedback in a startup. For one, the pace at this type of company can be very fast. So, there could only be a small window of opportunity to give feedback about a crucial process before it becomes moot. This situation leads to missed opportunities for improvement.

    Of course, you also risk losing valued employees when you give them feedback. Managers might be hesitant to provide honest thoughts on an employee’s performance–they might be afraid of alienating their teammates.

    Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Use Effective Feedback to Stay Resilient and Agile

    How to deliver feedback

    Given all these realities, the first thing to do is establish a feedback culture early. When people are used to opening up about work processes, managers need not worry about anyone getting hurt or missing the chance to say what they think. If you’ve established a different culture within your organization, turning it around is possible–it’ll take a while, but it can be done.

    Managers must also frame feedback so it considers a person’s long-term growth. It’s the difference between editing a junior software developer’s code yourself and letting them know what needs to be changed. A manager who corrects the code might say that only the work matters. In contrast, one who corrects others’ behavior shows that they care about their teammates, which builds trust and engagement.

    How feedback contributes to startup success

    Many successful startups have embraced the importance of feedback in their culture and have used it to achieve growth and success.

    For instance, Slack, one of the most popular communication and collaboration platforms, encourages users to provide feedback to make decisions about future development. Another company that leverages feedback is Dropbox. Their “Smart Sync” feature, which lets users access files through the cloud, came from user feedback.

    At Wing Assistant, we implemented a variety of mechanisms to solicit user feedback. Examples include NPS polls in our software product, email surveys (we are leveraging Voiceform to allow customers to speak their feedback freely), and one-on-one calls with customers conducted by our Client Success Managers. We also ask for feedback whenever customers leave us to monitor which areas need improvement constantly.

    Feedback and its role in business growth

    Letting your teammates know what works and what doesn’t is crucial for their personal and professional growth. In the fast-paced, competitive world of startups, feedback is all the more valuable. But feedback isn’t just for growing companies. By embracing and using it to drive innovation, companies of all sizes can reach their goals much faster.

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    Roland Polzin

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  • Open vs. Anonymous Feedback \u2014 How to Effectively Collect Employee Feedback | Entrepreneur

    Open vs. Anonymous Feedback \u2014 How to Effectively Collect Employee Feedback | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    While the need for continuous feedback has been a cornerstone of organizational performance for many years, recent transformative trends around remote working have made feedback culture more important than ever for company cohesion and success.

    But in the quest for valuable and honest feedback, does open feedback deliver better outcomes than anonymous channels?

    The benefits of feedback culture

    Regularly sharing honest and constructive feedback respectfully can create a growth mindset in the workplace as it encourages employees to learn, develop new skills, grow and seek new challenges.

    Providing feedback in this way can help promote better communication between managers and employees, boosting employee engagement and positively impacting overall employee satisfaction, retention and productivity.

    As such, regular feedback can build a solid and cohesive team and is a vital component in creating a strengths-based company culture, according to workplace consulting and global research group Gallup.

    Furthermore, when companies implement feedback culture correctly, it encourages continuous improvement and innovation. Importantly for fully remote or hybrid organizations, the benefits of an entrenched feedback culture extend beyond performance and productivity, as it also allows companies to focus on factors related to employee well-being.

    For these reasons, creating an environment where employees feel safe to give and share feedback on their perspectives on their and co-workers’ performances, workloads and well-being will differentiate a company from its competitors.

    Related: How to Give Employee Feedback Effectively (and Why It Matters)

    Encouraging valuable feedback

    The key to successfully implementing a feedback culture is creating opportunities for employees to give and receive constructive feedback regularly. In this regard, companies must train employees on how to do so and lead by example through regular and transparent communication.

    Another key consideration is developing effective feedback mechanisms, with open or anonymous feedback an important consideration. The main difference between these two feedback channels is the level of transparency and accountability involved in the process.

    I have always felt that anonymous feedback is toxic to company culture. In my mind, anonymous feedback conveys a message that the company normalizes living in fear and accepts that employees lack the courage and conviction to own their points of view.

    But as a business leader, my most significant concern relates to the idea that anonymous feedback means staff does not trust each other enough to offer and receive feedback constructively.

    Related: Are You Asking for Employee Feedback? If Not, Good Luck With Retention.

    Open feedback fosters trust

    Promoting open feedback lends itself to better engagement as employees can share their views in face-to-face conversations, through email, or via formalized internal feedback platforms. And sharing feedback in an open forum allows managers and business leaders to follow up with the person who provided the insights to clarify matters, ask additional questions and continue the conversation.

    Additional potential benefits of open feedback include:

    • Allows leadership to give and receive constructive criticism and positive reinforcement.
    • Helps identify areas for improvement and growth opportunities for individual employees and the organization as a whole.
    • Encourages a culture of continuous improvement.
    • Builds trust and fosters better communication within the workplace.

    One employee of mine shared that speaking openly and honestly is the best form of self-expression when sharing feelings and perceptions. The key to providing effective open feedback is honesty, offering facts to support views, using logic and proactively sharing ideas on improving rather than sharing “empty criticism,” which is useless.

    In this type of environment, where people respect the feelings of others, theoretically the need for anonymity would naturally dissipate.

    Related: Is Employee Feedback Missing at Your Company? Here’s Why and How to Fix It.

    Different strokes for different folks

    However, other employees of mine have pointed out that people differ in their ability to share information and receive feedback openly, especially if it is sensitive or in a group setting.

    Where extroverted employees may feel comfortable sharing their views freely in an open forum, someone who is more reserved and introverted may struggle to express their opinion or provide or receive criticism in a group setting.

    Another response pointed out that people may not be able to share points of discomfort openly because they do not want to compromise their position. In this context, labeling anonymous feedback as cowardly may undermine someone who is merely worried about their future.

    Open feedback can also lead to tension and conflict among employees and managers if it is not delivered constructively and respectfully and may create a culture of over-criticism and negativity if feedback is not balanced with positive reinforcement. Moreover, an open-only approach may erode the value of the feedback received, as people might feel less inclined to provide insights.

    A place for anonymous feedback

    When implemented and managed correctly, anonymous feedback can provide valuable insights and promote constructive communication, as this feedback channel allows staff to share honest opinions and feedback without fear of recrimination or repercussions or offending colleagues or superiors.

    In this way, allowing anonymous feedback may help to create a more balanced and comprehensive view of employee satisfaction and company performance.

    However, an anonymous-only approach can lead to a lack of accountability, fostering a culture of negativity and complaining. It can make it difficult to follow up or address specific concerns.

    What anonymous feedback channels should not do is promote a workplace where employees feel that they can recklessly criticize one another without consideration or give rude, offensive or hateful feedback.

    A hybrid feedback model

    Ultimately, both options have benefits and drawbacks, and both can work to create a thriving feedback culture because they cater to different employee preferences. As such, the best approach may vary depending on the situation and the culture of the organization.

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    Max Azarov

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