Business Development Company

Insight, Learning, Results

  • Home
  • Who we are
  • Insight
  • Learning
    • Register for a course
  • Results
  • Our Thoughts
  • Contact Us

Don’t leave them guessing – tips for giving feedback

11 May, 2017

There’s a saying that ‘the culture of an organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour the leader is willing to tolerate‘

And let’s face it, most leaders would rather clean the bathroom than give constructive feedback.

However, feedback, when delivered well, builds culture and performance within your team. People need to know how they’re doing and feedback gives people direction on the behaviours and level of performance you expect.

There are two reasons for giving feedback and only two:

  1. To reinforce behaviour; to ensure people keep doing what they are doing.
  2. To improve or shift performance; make a change or do something differently.

It’s much easier to give affirming or positive feedback to reinforce behaviour. But here’s a tip, remember to be specific. Giving generalised praise, such as ‘You did a good job’ is very different to ‘your report was timely and well thought out. Well done.’

Giving constructive feedback on helping to correct or shift performance is much more difficult. One of the concerns that leaders have is how people will react when they receive it. What happens if they become angry or defensive? So, we tend to shy away and blame people for not doing what we expect them to do.

So, here are some tips. Right from the beginning, set the scene that they can expect to receive feedback from you. Give them direction on what they need to do and tell them “I will be here to give you feedback on how you are going. I will tell you what you are doing well and talk to you about the things you need to work on.”

Then, get their permission. Ask them, “is that OK with you?” This ensures that people are on board and understand your role as leader. It gives you the leader, the reassurance to go ahead and give the feedback.

Remember: ‘Be bold, be brilliant and be gone‘.

Frequent, open feedback which is timely and genuine, promotes understanding and better performance. Mastering this skill is key to motivating and driving the performance of your team.

Julie Varney

Tagged With: building teams, communication, Employee engagement, employee motivation, giving feedback, Leadership, Leadership, organisational culture, team performance

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

  • News

Tags

BDC building teams Business Development Company business strategy Business trends change coaching communication competence conflict management difficult people e-learning Employee engagement Employee engagement employee motivation Future of Leadership giving feedback Herrmann Whole Brain Thinking Herrmann Whole Brain Thinking Herrmann Whole Brain Thinking Human resource management Leadership Leadership Leadership management motivation new years resolutions organisational culture principles of teaching and learning Resilience Self-leadership Self-leadership Self-leadership strategic planning Strategic thinking team communication team meetings team member to team leader team performance training Training trust work life balance Workplace well-being Workplace well-being

Our Latest News

  • Tackling the too hard basket

    The too hard basket story: You and a friend are having a picnic by the Read more →

  • Embracing Hearts and Minds

    Thinking or Feeling? Of the 4 quadrants in an HBDI profile, blue represents the analytical Read more →

  • Working from home – What did we learn?

    Remember lockdown? With just 2 days to prepare, many of us were suddenly working from Read more →

  • Contagion and ideas for staying mentally well

    In the spirit that we teach best what we most need to learn, this blog Read more →

  • Death by Meeting

    Ever leave a team meeting ready to rip your hair out? It happened to me Read more →

Situations Vacant

Get in touch

(+64) 021 355 922
Business Development Company (BDC)
Wellington & Nelson,
New Zealand
Email us

Connect with us

Find us on Linked InFind us on Facebook

What we do

  • Our Courses
  • Insight
  • Results

How we do business

  • Terms and Conditions – Coaching
  • Terms and Conditions – Scheduled Courses
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to our mailing list

* = required field

Copyright © 2022 Business Development Company · Website design by Avoca Design