Giving Feedback
February 15th, 2008 by Sue AbbissBe specific Make sure your feedback is clear and focused on the performance and don’t personalise it. Explain what the problem is, why it important that the employee achieves the performance expected. If you have raised your concerns before about the same problem, remind the employee when you have pointed out the offence in the past. Simply telling them what was wrong won’t help them change their behaviour, discuss how the employee can improve or avoid the mistake in the future, get their input. Make sure you add a time frame when you want to see the improvement by.
Give timely feedback. Make the individual aware of what they did as soon as you can after the event, so they can recall what as happened. However be aware of their emotional state, before you give the feedback, perhaps you may need to wait until the employee has calmed down and can think clearly about what has happened. But don’t wait days or weeks, to provide feedback, when the problem has become a distant memory and don’t save telling the person until you have your next meeting, this could turn your meetings into a negative event.
Check understanding. When summarising back to the employee, avoid asking ‘Do you understand’ they may merely say ‘yes.’ Ask them to summarise back to you, what you want them to do to improve, and when you want to see the improvement by, this way you know that they have understood what was said.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Excellent piece Sue. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of passing a comment about something that needs improvement. Gaining their input is crucial to make the feedback session as constructive as possible. It also encourages them to review their own performance on an ongoing basis and search for their own solutions.
I ran on course on communication yesterday and the section on check for understanding was well received. Most of the delegates admitted that after giving feedback they would ask ‘Do you understand’. They were all agreed that asking for a summary would indeed clarify if they understood and knew what was required from them.
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February 21st, 2008 at 11:57 am
Thanks for your comments Christine - it seems like such a simple thing to do, to get clarification, but like your communication course identified, it is easy to fall into the trap of saying ‘Do you understand’. That’s one of the reasons why communication training courses are a very useful tool and the companies that we train say that they benefit enormously from them.