When to Give Feedback to Subordinates
Giving feedback is not the same as holding an annual performance review. It's true that honest feedback is an essential ingredient of a formal review process, but the benefits of feedback occur when feedback is an ongoing process, not a one-shot deal. Your goal is to create a relationship with your employees that allows you to give honest feedback about behavior and performance without putting them on the defensive. Timing is critical. You should give feedback regularly, at the moment it is needed, when development opportunities arise, and when an employee needs to modify behavior to improve performance.
To succeed as a leader, you must learn to give effective feedback to your subordinates.
Frequently
Because the benefits of feedback accrue over time, you should give feedback often. This gives you the best chance of reinforcing positive behavior and of influencing change in unacceptable behavior. By frequently giving feedback, you will find it's easier to focus on a specific behavior. Giving frequent feedback also helps you develop a less formal approach to delivering your message. This kind of feedback need take only a minute.
Lucy, the logic of your argument in that meeting was very persuasive. You had my complete attention. I noticed that others were asking different kinds of questions at the end of your presentation than they were asking at the beginning. Your presentation moved me from skepticism to enthusiasm. Judging from the body language around the room, I think others shared that feeling.
In a Timely Manner
There's little value to dredging up a behavior that occurred six months earlier. Whether you want to reinforce or correct an employee's behavior, it's important to speak to the employee when the experience is fresh. If a subordinate's actions threaten the success of a task, now is the time to talk. You want to help your employee improve before another project derails.
There's little value to dredging up a behavior that occurred six months earlier.
Jake, you haven't kept your team informed of its progress on a timely basis. As a result, a project milestone was missed, and I've had to move the completion date back two months. I am having doubts as to whether you can manage this team. Already this delay will negatively impact product introduction and sales.
Giving timely and frequent feedback lets you observe more of your subordinates' behavior. Too often, managers notice and comment only on extreme behavior—the truly outstanding performance or the truly dreadful gaffe. But almost everything an employee does falls between these extremes. Look for and give feedback on those more usual behaviors.
For Development
Making employees aware of potential opportunities for success and providing constructive steps they can take to achieve those goals are key motivations for providing effective feedback to subordinates.
Too often, managers notice and comment only on extreme behavior.
Help your subordinates look to the future by guiding them to the actions they need to take to succeed.
Let's take the case of Angela. You believe she would be a good person to manage the new branch office. She has most of the skills she needs to succeed there, and you can help her find resources so she can learn what she doesn't know. You want to let her know about this opportunity and to see whether it fits in with her personal career goals.
Angela, your performance over the last several months, which we've talked about before, shows me that you've developed quite an array of skills. We're in need of a manager for the new branch office, and I think you would be the right choice for that position. Now, to be honest, there are a couple of areas that would be completely new to you. But the company has some excellent training opportunities that would help you build your skills, and we would make the time available to you to acquire that training. In addition, Bobbi Towers, who has managed our San Antonio branch since it opened two years ago, has agreed to be a mentor to whoever agrees to this assignment, and to help that person in whatever way is needed. Can you tell me if this kind of assignment fits in with your personal career plans?
For Solving Performance Problems
If you are planning a feedback session to address a performance problem, don't deliver your feedback in the hall, off the cuff, or on the run. Your feedback session should be scheduled, private, focused, and structured. You know, perhaps from personal experience, how tense and unpleasant such feedback sessions can be. If you deliver timely feedback on an ongoing basis, the relationship and trust you build with an employee can alleviate some of that pressure. But you must also think about what the employee's thoughts and reactions might be to your feedback. Timely and frequent feedback goes a long way toward creating an environment of trust in which you can deal with these reactions.
For performance problems, feedback should be scheduled, private, focused, and structured.
Larry, for example, is the kind of results-oriented manager that you value, but his style is abrasive to some. Now two of the people who report to him have resigned, both citing his abrupt, critical behavior as the reason. You have no doubt that this behavior is limiting his effectiveness as a manager. You do not know if he is aware of what he is doing to make his direct reports feel intimidated and inadequate. You do not know if he would be willing to modify his behavior. You have in mind a series of steps that could help him if he does want to work on that behavior, and you have scheduled a time to talk with him about this performance issue.
Larry, two of your direct reports have resigned. Both of them said during their exit interviews that they were intimidated by your style of management. The fact that two people have left indicates to me that perhaps you're not aware of the impact your behavior is having on your subordinates. I will say right now that we value your contributions to the company. I think you can contribute even more by passing on some of the passion you have for the job to the people under you. To do that, you need to appreciate the different ways in which people accept information and learn. If you're willing to accept that changes in your management style might achieve better results from your staff, the company is willing to send you through a leadership program to help you reach that goal.