Feedback, Inspiration, and Positive Reinforcement

Human beings get tired, uninspired, and unmotivated. Unlike machines, we go through emotions, have good and bad days, and get distracted by things around us. So, it is important to keep your teams on their toes, inspired and positively reinforced. 

Leaving motivation and inspiration to individuals can be devastating. 

Some of us lack the skill and technique to inspire or motivate ourselves or those around us. We need to be inspired, directed, and provided with reinforcement. Everyone, including management and the employees, must get on board. Getting everyone intrinsically motivated  and in a growth mindset is the key difference between good and great agile teams. 

In this article, we'll cover feedback, coaching, and practical tips for inspiration and positive reinforcement. 

Emotional Intelligence and Feedback 

Feedback is critical to collecting information about reactions to a product, tasks, and responsibilities. In addition, it helps you come up with ways to improve. 

While feedback revolves around individuals and teams, it is always about you, meaning you ultimately provide the feedback.  

How do you give feedback? How do you take feedback? 

Your emotional Intelligence comes into play as it helps you comprehend, apply and manage your emotions when giving or receiving feedback. It is the line between effective communication and failed communication. 

Emotional intelligence falls into the following four dimensions: 

1. Self-awareness: knowing how you feel and understanding its impact on your actions and activities 
2. Self-management: Ability to control your emotions and impulses in various circumstances 
3. Social- awareness: Ability to sense other people's emotions  
4. Relationship Management: Ability to inspire, influence, and develop others In group environments. 

Emotional Intelligence will help you figure out the following: 

• The appropriate time to give feedback (you don't want to give feedback in a bad morning or frustrated or nervous) 
• When not to give feedback 
• When you are ready to receive feedback 
• When you are not ready to receive feedback 

Active Listening 

Active listening plays a huge role in the kind of information you get. It helps you provide undivided attention and understand what the individual is saying. It also makes them comfortable enough to provide helpful information. 

You can achieve active listening through the following: 

• Mirroring- This is a behavior where you subconsciously imitate the behavior of the speaker. It shows the other person that you are paying attention. 
• Being Non-judgmental- Feedback is about understanding and not agreeing. So, avoid using judgmental language. 
• Clarification Question- If you don't understand something, politely ask for clarification. It shows that you are dedicated to understanding the person. 
• Paraphrasing- Repeating what you hear based on how you interpreted it helps the other person clarify anything you may have gotten wrong. 
• Summarize- Try to make a summary of what the other person said. It shows you were paying attention, and you understood. 

Remember that communicating with your team consists of your words, tone, and body language. You need to understand body language to avoid seeming giving mixed signals.  

Here are anti-patterns to active listening- 

• Defensiveness 
• Interrupting 
• Not allowing for silence 
• Belittling 
• No corrective solution 

Feedback Tools 

Feedback doesn't always consist of formal channels and sit-downs. Sometimes it can be informal and will take the following form: 

• Reinforcing- Involves encouraging a certain good behavior like showing appreciation and encouraging the team or individual. 
• Re-directive- It involves showing someone something they did wrong indirectly. Instead of telling the person a method is wrong, you could propose trying something different. 

Here are ways to get feedback. 

Daily Stand-ups 

This involves going through things that happened that day or the previous day to check on things that need improvement. It helps give inspiration and get everybody on the same page. 

Retrospectives 

Retrospectives involve gathering the teams together at the end of a cycle to see how the team performed. You get to dig into what worked, what failed, and what could work better. You should let each employee articulate the feedback themselves. 

Employee Review 

Employee reviews are a great way to show team members you care and are interested in their future growth. Ensure that you are prepaid for the review, have documentation of wins, and read the employee's self-evaluation. 

Employee self-evaluation helps you see your employee's mindset. 

During the sit-down, you can appreciate their strengths and make them aware of their weaknesses. Then, let the employee vent in a self and open environment. These build trust and psychological safety which is the foundation elements need to inspire. 

Coaching 

Coaching involves guiding the team or individual in making decisions. As a result, you can share information, experiences, ideas, and skills but NOT make the decision for them. 

Everyone needs coaching to improve and overcome weaknesses. However, it doesn't mean watching everything your team does every moment. It could impact the process negatively and look like supervision. 

Anti-coaching behavior include: 

• Behavioral feedback 
• Manipulation 
• Providing all answers 
• Giving direction or supervising 

It is also important to ensure the coach is certified and has the skills and mindset to coach. 

There is also a difference between coaching and mentoring. Mentoring is more in-depth, involves developing relationships and goes on for a long time. 

Pragmatic Tips for Inspiration and Positive Reinforcement 

Psychological Safety 

Understanding your team's mental mindset is important before trying to inspire and provide positive reinforcement. It helps you choose a technique to use to avoid failure and frustration. You need to ensure that your team and employees feel safe.  Safety is the key to learning and growth. 

Saying Thank You...The Right Way 

Appreciating your team and employees leads to positive reinforcement. It shows that their work is important and noticed. Acknowledging them also shows that their presence is felt and improves their mood. So say hi to employees with a smile on your face and always maintain eye contact. 

Stretch Goals 

Stretch goals involve allowing someone to handle new tasks within their current skill sets. You support and encourage them along the way, ensuring they feel psychologically safety so they can properly utilize the feedback they get along the way and learn.  

Celebration Techniques and Ideas 

Celebrating any wis is essential for boosting morale. It can be as simple as saying thank you and great job. If you have made a promise, ensure you fulfill it. 

Here are pointers you can use: 

• Make acknowledgement public 
• Use inclusive language like we and US 
• Take time and enjoy 
• Avoid pointing out issues during the celebration 
• Give LinkedIn shoutouts 
• Ensure your body language and tone match the celebratory nature of the event.  
• Participate 
• Give a handwritten note! 
• Provide food at the celebration 

Being inspirational drives motivation and feedback. But you must listen to their feedback attentively, acknowledge it and act on it. Finally look for ways to appreciate them and make valued and what they do has purpose and meaning. 

If you want to learn more about feedback, inspiration, and positive reinforcement, watch the full webinar here.