May 3, 2010 6:36 pm
Truth or Consequences: How to Give Employee Feedback By Judith Lindenberger
Why is it that many of us put off giving feedback to our employees even though we intuitively know that giving and getting honest feedback is essential to grow and develop and to build successful organizations? Maybe it is because there are so many ways to screw it up.
Here are ten common feedback mistakes:
1. Speaking out only when things are wrong. “Praise to a human being represents what sunlight, water and soil are to a plant – the climate in which one grows best.” – Earl Nightingale
2.”Drive-by” praise without specifics or an honest underpinning. – “Great job!”
3. Waiting until performance or behavior is substantially below expectations before acting on it.
4. Giving positive or negative feedback long after the event has occurred.
5. Not taking responsibility for your thoughts, feelings and reactions. “This comes straight from the boss.”
6. Giving feedback through e-mail messages, notes, or over the telephone.
7. Giving negative feedback in public.
8. Criticizing performance without giving suggestions for improvement.
9. No follow up afterwards.
10. Not having regularly scheduled performance review meetings.
Giving and receiving clear and constructive feedback requires courage and skill, and is essential to building good relationships with and motivating peak performance from your team.
Here are four tips for how to do right:
1. Be proactive. Nip issues in the bud and avoid the messy interpersonal tangles that result from neglected communication. Meeting with employees on a monthly or quarterly basis instead of annually, for example, conveys, “Your success is important to me, so I want to be accessible to you.”
to me, so I want to be accessible to you.”
2. Be specific. It’s never easy to provide negative feedback regarding someone’s work, but as a leader you can’t avoid it. Be as clear as possible when providing feedback (both positive and negative). Give specific examples that illustrate your points.
For example: Instead of saying, “Your attitude is bad” or “That didn’t work,” you might say something like, “When you miss deadlines, then cross your arms and look away when I discuss it with you, it gives me the impression that you don’t care about the quality of your work. I’d like to believe this isn’t true. Can you help me explain this better?”
3. Develop a progress plan. Be clear about the specific changes in behavior that you expect in a specific period of time, and follow up as scheduled.
4. Link employees’ performance to organizational goals. Reinforce the value of your employees’ contributions by giving specific examples of how their work and positive behaviors serve the organization and its customers.
If you are not doing these
work and positive behaviors serve the organization and its customers.
If you are not doing these things, why would anyone else in your organization do them? Craft a performance appraisal process that encourages truth or consequences
May 3, 2010 6:35 pm
Truth or Consequences: How to Give Employee Feedback By Judith Lindenberger
Why is it that many of us put off giving feedback to our employees even though we intuitively know that giving and getting honest feedback is essential to grow and develop and to build successful organizations? Maybe it is because there are so many ways to screw it up.
Here are ten common feedback mistakes:
1. Speaking out only when things are wrong. “Praise to a human being represents what sunlight, water and soil are to a plant – the climate in which one grows best.” – Earl Nightingale
2.”Drive-by” praise without specifics or an honest underpinning. – “Great job!”
3. Waiting until performance or behavior is substantially below expectations before acting on it.
4. Giving positive or negative feedback long after the event has occurred.
5. Not taking responsibility for your thoughts, feelings and reactions. “This comes straight from the boss.”
6. Giving feedback through e-mail messages, notes, or over the telephone.
7. Giving negative feedback in public.
8. Criticizing performance without giving suggestions for improvement.
9. No follow up afterwards.
10. Not having regularly scheduled performance review meetings.
Giving and receiving clear and constructive feedback requires courage and skill, and is essential to building good relationships with and motivating peak performance from your team.
Here are four tips for how to do right:
1. Be proactive. Nip issues in the bud and avoid the messy interpersonal tangles that result from neglected communication. Meeting with employees on a monthly or quarterly basis instead of annually, for example, conveys, “Your success is important to me, so I want to be accessible to you.”
to me, so I want to be accessible to you.”
2. Be specific. It’s never easy to provide negative feedback regarding someone’s work, but as a leader you can’t avoid it. Be as clear as possible when providing feedback (both positive and negative). Give specific examples that illustrate your points.
For example: Instead of saying, “Your attitude is bad” or “That didn’t work,” you might say something like, “When you miss deadlines, then cross your arms and look away when I discuss it with you, it gives me the impression that you don’t care about the quality of your work. I’d like to believe this isn’t true. Can you help me explain this better?”
3. Develop a progress plan. Be clear about the specific changes in behavior that you expect in a specific period of time, and follow up as scheduled.
4. Link employees’ performance to organizational goals. Reinforce the value of your employees’ contributions by giving specific examples of how their work and positive behaviors serve the organization and its customers.
If you are not doing these
work and positive behaviors serve the organization and its customers.
If you are not doing these things, why would anyone else in your organization do them? Craft a performance appraisal process that encourages truth or consequences
February 21, 2010 2:47 pm
It’ going to be an exciting year! Even in the midst of a still lagging economy, I am finding that my clients are using as many resources as possible to improve performance, and stay on the cutting edge of their competition. One of those resources is training for themselves and employees!
It is with pleasure that SBG Learning Strategies will now be a reseller of Social Style training offered by TRACOM Corp. This no nonsense training affects everything from communication to leadership and motivation and sales. Looking at preferred behaviors of different people, an individual learns how to better communicate on the level of the recipient. This helps leaders and managers understand how to best connect with every individual on their team. Call it interpersonnal effectiveness training, or performance enhancement. Whatever the case, this training is easy to recall on the job due to a tried and true model that has been used for 50 years.
The two day Mastery Course helps individuals not only understand their preferred behaviors in certain situations, but it also allows them to understand others in which they interact. The participant will assess themselves and enlist feedback from other significant people in the workplace or life to give them a whole picture of how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them.
Versatility is the second part of this training that gives participants a number of improvement opportunities where they can build skills to help them communicate, plan, coach and support others.
This training is a highly interactive two day course, or can be broken down into a one day and or a half day at a time depending on client needs. For more information, contact sbgregory45@yahoo.com
Comments (0) 
