Management Training – Page 41 – STL

The ability to give and receive feedback effectively is an extremely important skill for any Manager or Leader. This article will focus on 5 different ways Managers can give more effective feedback to their staff:

5 tips for giving more effective feedback to staff

Ask before giving feedback

Some Managers are worried about offending their subordinates when giving feedback so they procrastinate feedback conversations or don’t prioritise them. Instead of rushing a feedback conversation and directly giving a team member negative feedback a good technique is to ask the person if they mind you giving them some feedback.

For example you might simply ask: “ Can I give you some feedback about the report you wrote? “ or “ are you happy for me to give you some feedback about the report that you wrote? “

Usually the other person will reply “ yes “ and they will be more willing to receive some feedback than if you directly give them negative feedback.

Don’t judge just describe

When giving feedback it is important to not judge the behaviour of the other person as this could cause them to be defensive. Simply describe the behaviour you observed and also the impact that it had on you or the team. A simple but powerful model is the SBI method. Explain the situation, describe the behaviour that you observed and outline the impact that it had.

After using the SBI model to give feedback it is a good idea is to ask the other person an open question such as “ what are your thoughts about this? “

Don’t only give negative feedback

Be careful to not only give negative or constructive feedback to your team as no one likes to be criticised all the time.

Heaphy and Losada found in their research with 50,000 Managers what was the ideal ratio of positive to negative comments. For example positive comments might include (“I agree with that,” for instance, or “That’s a terrific idea”) to negative comments (“I don’t agree with you” “We shouldn’t even consider doing that”) that the participants made to one another. (Negative comments, could go as far as sarcastic or disparaging remarks.) The average ratio for the highest-performing teams was 5.6 (that is, nearly six positive comments for every negative one).

Describe the value of feedback

If your team are not familiar with the value of getting feedback to help them improve you could talk about how feedback has benefited you in your career. As the say goes “ don’t just tell, sell. “ This will increase the chances that the other person will be more willing to accept your feedback without being defensive.

Avoid using “but, always, never”

When giving feedback some Managers first give a compliment (positive feedback) and then give constructive (negative) feedback. This a great method, however after giving the positive feedback some people risk ruining the conversation by saying “ but “ before giving the constructive comments. This can give the other person the impression that the constructive feedback was not sincere.

Likewise, if you use the words “ always “ or “ never “ when giving feedback the other person might feel you are attacking them. For example “ why do you always arrive late for work? “

If you want to improve the feedback as well as other skills of your Managers why not send them on one of our professional development courses so they can learn and practice the skills to both give and receive feedback.

The Power of Feedback

Did you know that in a recent survey conducted by a leading British University, Organisational Skills came out as the 3^rd most important skill sought by employers in the UK?

Organisational training skills are amongst the most transferable and valuable in any marketplace and they allow professionals to plan, prioritise and achieve as part of meeting their objectives and goals.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have also stated that the art of planning and organising is becoming increasingly prevalent with demand for training courses on this topic are in high demand.

INTRODUCTION:

There are 3 main skills which fall under the banner of Organisational skills which employers seek:

Physical Organisation
Planning
Teamwork

PHYSICAL ORGANISATION:

It goes far beyond simply having a clear desk but also a clear mind and a clear vision to how to achieve their goals. You can nearly always tell the well organised professionals when they enter a room by their appearance, how they communicate, how they present their written communication or how they prepare for a meeting, an interview or an event.

Let’s face it, you do not need to be a Project Manager in order to have strong organisational skills yet the demand in the job marketplace has never been higher.

PLANNING:

According to The Guardian Jobs website, the question, ‘How do you manage your time and plan for your day?’ is one of the most asked by interviewers.

A plan can be as simple as deciding which part of my car do I wash first or as complicated and detailed as charting a corporate strategy for the next 4 years for a leading multi-national.

Unless you have an effective plan in place, a goal might as well be a wish. Every project will have a timeline to adhere to and will require anticipation of resources available along with regular communication and updates for stakeholders. Strong Organisational Skills will need to be drawn on in order to build an effective, workable plan of action that can be managed and executed on time and on budget. The questions need to be asked, does your business have the right personnel in place to think, plan and organise effectively?

Do they draw on Business Intelligence, use business data and data trends to help in their decision making or they follow their instinct?

Are they skilfully adept and working efficiently at problem solving, program management, project management and strategy planning?

TEAMWORK:

In a well-oiled team, all members work to their strengths and are assigned accordingly. Providing the appropriate delegation of these tasks can save on time and profits as a project in the wrong hands can have far reaching cost-related consequences.

Well organised people will understand and maintain the structure of the wider teams of which they are a part.

In order to maintain commitments to their people, all businesses must deliver on their promises of providing professional development to their people in order to assist them in reaching their potential and playing their part in keeping the business profitable.

These skills all form part of a long-term development plan, so it is important to set clear goals to keep on track. Our motivation course can help with this.

Blog Categories