A recent Gallup study on employee performance found that “only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve.”
“In other words, if performance reviews were a drug, they would not meet FDA approval for efficacy.”
This is both shocking and unsurprising. While effective performance hinges on receiving constructive feedback, giving effective feedback is often a daunting and frequently avoided challenge. Managers are often promoted without training, left to figure it out on their own and their teams are similarly unprepared. And yet avoiding feedback does not make challenges disappear, but often makes them worse.
To help my coaching clients, both individual leaders and teams, I share this simple yet powerful framework that can help managers and others give feedback that builds, rather than breaks, employee success.
Successful feedback correlates with the level of trust in the relationship. Trust is gained by prioritizing the recipient of the feedback, not the specific content of the feedback itself.
Effective feedback starts before the actual feedback conversation. It starts at the very beginning of the employee’s tenure, during onboarding to a new role and sometimes even during the recruiting process. The very best managers have teams who welcome feedback because they know the manager cares about their success.
Here’s the four-part framework that every manager who has responsibility for someone else’s performance - and success - needs to know:
Ground in Empathy - Know how someone wants to receive feedback before giving feedback. Feedback conversations centered in empathy create the conditions for the trust necessary for effective feedback. An individualized approach will increase receptivity and lay a foundation for future growth. Like clarifying role responsibilities, organizational culture and expectations, a conversation on giving and receiving feedback is foundational and should be part of onboarding or manager training. If the need for immediate feedback precludes this conversation, it is still possible to inquire how to share feedback before actually doing so, giving the recipient both clear expectations and agency.
Start Positive - Share what worked - all of it - and then what didn’t work, but just part of it. Training on how to give feedback is necessary because giving critical feedback is essential and hard. More worrisome and damaging than feedback unsaid, are comments that are incorrectly heard or misinterpreted. A common mistake in giving feedback is this idea of balanced feedback being alternating feedback; a 50-50 split between constructive and positive. Yet the research indicates otherwise. High performing teams have five positive comments for every single critical comment. Other experts suggest that criticism should align proportionately with performance, i.e. when 90% of the performance is positive, so should 90% of the feedback. Difficult feedback can be harder to hear and take more time to process. Starting with positive reflections reinforces what works and creates positive intent and context for what can be improved. For more constructive feedback, it is important to prioritize what - not all - to share and allow the recipient to reflect, add their own insights all the while being careful not to spend too much time on what went wrong. Dwelling on what didn't work can easily undermine the effectiveness of positive feedback.
Actionable Feedback - Name the change for continuous growth. Effective feedback reaps more than just greater success. It deepens trust between colleagues, strengthens individual expertise and challenges the mind to be always learning. As learners we need to know both what we should keep and repeat and also what to change; rushing past success to find what to fix will rob the recipient of insight into how to repeat success. While positive feedback is essential, it is equally important that it is specific and names exactly what worked in a way that the person receiving feedback understands, appreciates and can do again… and again!
Path Forward - Agree on the next step; but just one. Learning from a failure demands a level of curiosity and discomfort than learning from success. So while feedback may suggest multiple improvements, choosing just one to address will more likely result in the improvement. This catalyzes a domino effect whereby the success of one improvement will reinforce learning, the desire for feedback and follow up conversations. Over analyzing or piling on a punch list of actions will reduce both the impact of positive reinforcement and the focus on improvement.
Providing feedback can often be a challenging experience. Yet, by emphasizing what works and keeping next steps manageable, we can foster a culture of trust that supports growth and success. If you have additional insights or suggestions, please share in the comments below.
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