Feedback is a vital tool for improving team performance, but it can also be challenging to give and receive effectively. In this article, you will learn how feedback can benefit your team, what are the best practices for delivering and receiving feedback, and how to overcome common feedback challenges.
Feedback can help your team achieve several goals, such as aligning expectations and objectives, recognizing strengths and achievements, and identifying areas for improvement. It can also encourage learning and growth, build trust and rapport, and resolve conflicts and issues. Regularly giving and receiving feedback can foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and accountability in your team.
From experience when working with others, both professionally and emotionally, feedback fosters trust. By asking for feedback, you demonstrate that you appreciate opinions and are confident enough to learn how you might improve. Think about how it operates: You can ask for feedback in a formal evaluation procedure or a more relaxed setting, such as over a meal. Once your areas of strength and growth have been determined, you should communicate with the critical people in your life that you need their support to excel in your growth areas and encouragement to do more of what you do well.
From my experience, I've learned to explain what feedback is, why it is used and how it can help employees and leaders grow. This may seem elementary, but if employees and leaders don't understand what feedback is and how to use it appropriately, it can be a disaster. Giving more in depth definition to the term feedback and setting clear ground rules of why feedback is used, will help set expectations moving forward.
Constructive, respectful, and helpful feedback should be given as soon as possible after the event or behavior. Focus on concrete examples and outcomes, while highlighting both positive and negative aspects and avoiding personal judgments or biases. Express appreciation and recognition for the recipient, and clearly state the purpose and goal of the feedback. Additionally, suggest specific steps or resources for improvement.
In my experience I have found that if I begin the conversation with positive feedback and follow up with constructive feedback, the recipient is more open. Whereas when I have provided constructive feedback immediately following an event or behavior, the recipient has shut down and/or taken a defensive stance.
Angel, love your comment. You are correct. Leaders must give many more positive feedback opportunities before giving the more constructive feedback types.
One thing I found helpful was increasing the amount of positive feedback I give upfront. By doing so, I started my coaching sessions by sending a message to my staff because it showed how competent I felt in them and how positive I felt they were doing some things right. This built a positive foundation that made it easier for my team to receive feedback to accept the areas for improvement. But the heart of this is the feeling that each person is good or has the potential to be good. This, in turn, forms the foundation for trust. Trust is a must.
To receive feedback that is useful, informative, and motivating, you should be open and curious, listening attentively and asking questions to clarify or elaborate on the feedback. Showing respect and appreciation for the giver's time and effort is also important. Additionally, you should reflect on the feedback objectively and identify what you can learn from it. Lastly, be committed to following up on the feedback and tracking your progress and results.
Listen to understand and not hear to have a response. Be open and, more importantly, be vulnerable. If you have an answer or something to say in your head before feedback is completed, then you're really not listening. It is also important to be vigilant and mindful of what we're feeling and how we are reacting to feedback. Our body will not betray us and it will always have a tell if we're really accepting or we're on the defensive.
Giving and receiving feedback can be a challenging process, especially when encountering common issues such as resistance or defensiveness, ambiguity or confusion, disagreement or conflict, and demotivation or discouragement. The recipient may reject the feedback, or it may be unclear or inconsistent. There may even be a clash between the giver and the recipient's views or beliefs, or the feedback may be too harsh, negative, or critical. All of these can make the recipient feel overwhelmed or hopeless.
I find the feedback challenge that must be first overcome is from the perspective of the one giving feedback. Especially if you're in an organisation where feedback is part of the stated values, it can be tempting to hide behind the "feedback" label, when all you're really doing is reacting or expressing a pet peeve. That's not feedback, it's about you. Once you tame those wild horses, then constructive feedback is possible.
Giving feedback can be tough when encountering issues like resistance, confusion, conflict, or demotivation. For instance, imagine a manager providing feedback to Lisa about her presentation. Lisa may resist, feel confused, disagree, or become demotivated when receiving feedback. These challenges can make the recipient feel overwhelmed or hopeless. Effective communication and addressing these issues are crucial for constructive feedback.
Feedback is a valuable way to enhance team performance, yet it needs skill and practice to be done effectively. To overcome the challenges of feedback, you can acknowledge and validate emotions, focus on facts and benefits, avoid blaming or accusing, emphasize the positive intent and shared goals, ask for clarification or examples, use clear and specific language, respect and appreciate diversity of views and styles, provide or seek support and encouragement, celebrate achievements and progress, avoid comparing or judging, set realistic goals, and break down feedback into manageable steps or actions. By following these tips and strategies, feedback can be a beneficial experience for your team.
There are three things I have found critical to avoid or overcome challenges and bring forth an effective feedback exchange: a willingness to listen, empathy, and validation. First, don't assume that you have all the answers, even as an eye-witness. Let the recipients of the feedback know you genuinely are willing to listen to their sides of the story and invest the time to do so. As much as possible, try to put yourself in their shoes and even share a time you may have behaved similarly in the past. Perhaps most importantly, validate that they understand what you were sharing and why you were sharing the feedback, as well as what your expectations of them are moving forward by having them repeat it back to you.
One item I don't see in this post is that in order to give open and receive honest and open feedback, both parties must build a strong trust factor in their relationship.
Here are some thoughts I have about feedback: - Give real feedback, not negative criticism - Make feedback and consistent practice of the team, use after action reviews following every project - Think creatively about how to make feedback fun, for example, have a team participate in something like LIFO, where each team member learns about the styles of each of the other team members - Every quarter have team members give feedback to each other. Make it constructive,specific, and descriptive. Celebrate the results together. - if you are a facilitator of a feedback experience, learn some of the classic designs for giving and receiving effective feedback.
Feedback without change is worthless. If the feedback is valid, if it is constructive and it is given by multiple sources... then management should address the feedback. If you ask team members for "feedback", then you should be prepared to implement some changes or the entire process is a waste of time.