As a leader once of the greatest gifts you can give your team member is honest feedback – and it doesn’t always have to be positive. Feedback is a form of respect and appreciation – it shows that you are paying attention to what your people are doing and that you care enough to point them in the right direction.
One thing is certain: meaningful feedback increases employee engagement and performance. In fact, according to a Gallup report, employees would prefer to receive negative feedback than no feedback at all. An employee who is ignored by a manager is twice as likely to be actively disengaged at work as an employee whose manager focuses on his or her weaknesses, according to the report.
When you can help someone understand the impact of their actions (whether good or bad), you give them the gift of perspective, and help them to understand how they can add value to the business as well as their own career.
It’s important to be clear and to the point with your feedback, whatever it is. When you get the structure right, the feedback is much more likely to be understood and actioned. Choose one issue at a time! Focusing on too many skills or behaviours at once is confusing and overwhelming, and can feel like an all-out attack.
Feedback should inspire the other person to improve, not make them wallow in where they went wrong. But don’t avoid real problems, either. If there’s an issue, don’t be afraid to state it. Following a simple structure can help you frame your feedback so that it’s taken on board and actioned effectively.
One of my favourite models for giving feedback is AID:
Action – Impact – Desired Behaviour
It’s easy to remember and structure a feedback conversation, and has been well used by many of my clients. Remember to ‘AID’ the person by giving feedback:
Action
For example: “I noticed that you’ve been late for a number of meetings recently.”
Or “You spoke clearly and persuasively in that presentation”
The key to this step is to ensure that your observation cannot be denied by the other person. Note that you are not blaming them or putting any emotion to the statement – you’re simply stating your observations.
Impact
First, ask the individual what they think the impact is, before sharing your perspective. Here are some impact questions you might ask the person:
- What impact is their performance/ behaviour having on them?
- What impact is it having on the team/ business?
- How is the customer (internal or external) impacted?
- What evidence do you have for this?
- Why is this important?
If they don’t offer a response, share your view of the impact – for example. “I noticed that you’ve been late for a number of meetings recently. This is wasting time for the rest of the team members, and making them feel that you don’t care about the project. This is impacting their trust in your team interest.”
Or “You spoke really clearly and persuasively on that presentation. The Senior Leaders were impressed with the effort you put in, and it looks like they will approve the proposal. You’ve raised your profile to them by showing your professionalism there. Well done!”
Desired behaviour
Using open questions, ask the individual how they think things can be developed or built upon. This will help to gain buy-in and you may be surprised by the options they suggest. By asking the person well considered questions (rather than giving them your perspective straight away), you will build their ability to identify new ways of thinking, which will further enhance their problem solving and insight generation.
Here are some desired behaviour questions:
- What does success look like going forward?
- What does the goal look like?
- How can you ensure that you’re on time for meetings moving forward?
- How can you use this experience in other areas of your work?
Of course, be prepared with a couple of suggestions that could help the other person, in case they can’t think of anything themselves.
A few final tips to ensure your feedback is truly IMPACTFUL:
Seek first to understand, before being understood.
Ask the person open questions to identify what was happening for them, did they understand the requirements or were there any other issues. It’s still important to give the feedback, but you may modify it once you understand the situation. Essentially – you need to have a conversation.
Be Specific
You equally need to be specific when giving positive feedback. Most of us have heard comments like “Nice job!” or “Well done on that report!”. While this type of general praise has its place and is definitely better than nothing, you’ll make more of an impact if you share exactly what was great about their work. When you tell the other person what he did well and how it had a positive effect, it will make your message memorable and relevant.
Allow Thinking Space
With these tips in mind, your feedback will be much more likely to be understood, taken on board, and make a real IMPACT to the person’s performance. And by giving impactful feedback (both positive and constructive!), you will not only lift performance, but build trusting relationships, as you will be known as someone who cares.
