As a student leader, you want to create a positive team culture where your members feel valued, engaged, and motivated to achieve your shared goals. But how do you balance feedback and recognition to motivate your team? Here are some tips to help you master this essential skill.
Feedback and recognition are both important ways to communicate with your team, but they serve different purposes. Feedback is about helping your team members improve their performance, learn from their mistakes, and grow their skills. Recognition is about celebrating your team members' achievements, strengths, and contributions. Feedback and recognition should be aligned with your team's objectives, expectations, and values.
By tailoring the recognition to each team member’s preferences and personality. Some may prefer public recognition, while others might appreciate private praise. Similarly, feedback should be given in a way that each individual finds most constructive!
I try to keep a consistent rhythm, so that my supervisees know what to expect. Typically, I give two pieces of feedback, and then one piece of affirmation or recognition, to ensure that I'm communicating my appreciation for the work that's been completed, even if there things to work on or tweak.
Feedback should be timely, specific, constructive, and balanced. Timely feedback means giving it as soon as possible after the performance, while it is still fresh and relevant. Specific feedback means focusing on the behavior, not the person, and providing examples and evidence. Constructive feedback means offering suggestions and solutions, not just criticism and complaints. Balanced feedback means acknowledging what went well and what can be improved, not just focusing on the negatives or the positives.
Recognition should be sincere, meaningful, and diverse. Sincere recognition means expressing genuine appreciation and gratitude, not just empty praise or flattery. Meaningful recognition means tailoring it to the individual and the situation, not just using generic or clichéd words or gestures. Diverse recognition means using different forms and channels of recognition, such as verbal, written, public, private, formal, or informal, depending on the preferences and needs of your team members.
Feedback and recognition should be given regularly and consistently, not just occasionally or randomly. Regular feedback and recognition help your team members stay on track, monitor their progress, and adjust their actions. Consistent feedback and recognition help your team members trust you, respect you, and feel supported by you. However, feedback and recognition should not be given too frequently or excessively, as this may reduce their impact, credibility, or value.
It is also important to survey the people on your team. Each person will be different in terms of how much they appreciate feedback and recognition. If someone really thrives on recognition, you might acknowledge their effort more frequently. Personally, positive recognition is not very important for me but I do strongly value critical feedback. That is important for my team to know.
Feedback/recognition also doesn't always need to be a big event or meeting scheduled for reviewing progress. Often the most effective frequency is often and informally. Mentioning how great and appreciative you are at the end of a day or explaining something that needs to be addressed on a coffee chat.
Feedback and recognition may pose some challenges for you as a student leader, such as dealing with difficult emotions, overcoming biases, or handling conflicts. To overcome these challenges, you need to be empathetic, respectful, and objective. Empathetic means understanding your team members' feelings and perspectives, and showing care and compassion. Respectful means being polite, courteous, and professional, and avoiding personal attacks or judgments. Objective means being fair, honest, and evidence-based, and avoiding favoritism or stereotypes.
Feedback and recognition have many benefits for you and your team, such as enhancing performance, engagement, and motivation. Feedback helps your team members improve their skills, learn from their experiences, and achieve their goals. Recognition helps your team members feel valued, appreciated, and proud of their work. Feedback and recognition also foster a positive team culture, where your team members trust each other, collaborate effectively, and share a common vision.
Use specific examples to provide feedback, focusing on improving skills and performance. A manager who pointed out a team member's accurate data analysis, encouraging them to continue developing their analytical skills. Acknowledge achievements promptly to reinforce positive behavior like praising a team member's successful project completion during a team meeting. Tailor recognition to individual preferences. A manager who knows an employee values public recognition and praises them in front of their peers. Ensure a balance between positive reinforcement and constructive feedback. Make feedback and recognition a regular part of your team culture. A manager who schedules weekly meetings to discuss performance and provide feedback.
Something that helps is shifting your perspective that feedback = negative. Positive feedback can often lead into great moments of recognition. Separating the two can actually make things more difficult and be more challenging on morale if feedback is always associated with the negative.