Avoid These Common Mistakes When Giving Feedback
Insider info from an executive coach about how to give feedback to team members
If you know me by now, you would know that I’m incredibly big on feedback. Having spent the past 14 years in the executive coaching scene, I know firsthand that feedback was and remains an ever-present people management issue.
In my executive coaching sessions, I hear from leaders who view feedback to be something negative. Because of that, they do not know how to give feedback to team members. When they do, they either come across as unnecessarily critical (nitpicking only the negatives) or super half-hearted (giving feedback for the sake of it).
Here in this article, I share candidly from my executive coaching experience about common mistakes that leaders make when it comes to giving feedback to their employees. At the end of it, you’ll know how to give feedback to team members that will actually work.
Why Leaders Should Know How To Give Good Feedback
I have personally tasted and seen the impact when a leader knows how to give feedback to their team members. It contributes to employee engagement and drives performance. In fact, the statistics are there to back that up.
According to Quantum Workplace, employees who work under leaders who provide frequent and ongoing feedback are “2.7 times more likely to be highly engaged.” Engagement drives productivity. Leaders who have been through my leadership development program know how much I believe that feedback is the main driver of performance. It’s also why I make it a point to get feedback from my team regularly.
Putting aside whether or not leaders know how to give feedback to their team members, an employee engagement firm – Office Vibe – released research showing that 65% of employees want more feedback compared to what they currently receive.
Evidently, the employees have spoken. They don’t think their bosses are giving them enough feedback.
The question is: What are leaders doing wrong when it comes to knowing how to give good feedback?
As a leadership coach, I have seen a couple of mistakes surface when I talk to the leaders in my leadership coaching program.
Mistake #1: They don’t know how often to give feedback to team members.
From a leadership coaching standpoint, the short answer to that is… whenever and wherever.
A common mistake that leaders make is that they try to consolidate all the feedback and dish it out only during performance reviews.
But like I say in my leadership coaching sessions, “the moment is lost.”
Here’s the issue with waiting it out till performance reviews before bringing up the feedback that you want to give. Performance reviews happen every quarter at best. If the purpose of giving feedback is to make the necessary adjustments for improvement, then withholding feedback only for performance reviews is counterproductive.
Start now. Capture those moments. Make giving feedback part and parcel of your conversations with your employees.
Mistake #2: They don’t know what to bring up when giving feedback.
The moment you catch them doing something right or something you appreciate, that is a positive moment you want to reinforce.
For instance, if you catch them going above and beyond by putting in extra hours, a simple acknowledgement of your appreciation helps them feel their efforts were recognised.
The moment you spot a behaviour that is not reflective of the values you want to establish in your team, that is a learning moment you want to capitalise on.
For instance, if you see them speaking up and sharing ideas during a meeting, you can take that opportunity to publicly recognise their efforts for living out the value that you hope to see established in your team.
Mistake #3: Their feedback is too generic and not applicable.
We all have been through the conversation about “areas for improvement.” That’s how many leaders sugarcoat what they actually want to convey through their feedback. What they really end up doing is only pointing out what went wrong without processing it and identifying what can be done about it.
When feedback is not specific, your employee will not know what they did right or wrong in that scenario. If it were a positive thing that should be continued, they wouldn’t know what to replicate. Vice versa, if it were a negative thing that should be curbed, they would be oblivious as to what and how to rectify it.
Mistake #4: They give their feedback at the wrong time.
I always tell the leaders in my executive coaching program that they cannot assume or expect that their employees are going to be fully ready to receive feedback, especially if it’s to process what went wrong, at any given time.
When leaders catch their team members at the wrong time, they will not have the full attention of their team members. Without having their full attention, feedback that is given can end up misconstrued and opens up the doors to more miscommunication in the future.
The next question is: How to give good feedback that actually works?
Through my years of leadership coaching, I developed a framework on how to give good feedback that I use in my leadership development program. The main principles of this framework on feedback are:
Appreciation
The core of how to give good feedback is to come from a point of appreciating your team members. If you give them the impression that your main agenda is to call them out or judge them, they will definitely not be open to receiving feedback from you.
Let them see that the purpose of your giving feedback is to build them up and not tear them down. That is a sure way of establishing trust and opening up the communication lines between you and your employees.
Be Future Ready
What this means is to look beyond the now and into how you can be ready to make the necessary changes in the future. This is especially useful when you want to know how to give feedback to your team members in situations where you think they can do better.
Instead of focusing on the flaws of what they did, begin processing with them what went wrong to begin with. Encourage them to do self-reflection on the root causes and identify actionable steps to ensure they know how to act in future situations.
Consistency
Another core principle is to be consistent in giving feedback. Just like I share in my leadership coaching sessions, great leadership is all about being consistent.
In this case, when you are consistent in giving feedback regularly, your team will catch on to that value, and their performance levels will begin to demonstrate that as well.
Now You Know How To Give Feedback To Your Team Members
If you are a leader and you want to know how to give good feedback, you can start by identifying if you are making any of these common mistakes that I’ve highlighted above.
From there, you can take practical steps based on the 3 principles of the framework on feedback that I use in my executive coaching sessions.
Here’s to you mastering the art of how to give feedback to your team members that will make a difference.
