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Source: http://www.b17.ru/article/learn_to_give_feedback_to_guide_the/
It is very important for every self-respecting leader to learn how to properly give feedback to subordinates. After all, the success of the company you head will largely depend on this skill. We can say that this skill is the art of praising and scolding one’s students. But, most of all, I would like to focus on how to correctly tell a subordinate about a mistake he has made, about a mistake he has made, so as not to offend or, as they say in Japan, to save his face?
Let's first look at the concept: What is feedback?
In short, this is a certain mechanism for transmitting information, consisting of several questions or proposals from the manager to his employees, from employees to their colleagues and back, in various versions, etc. In any case, this is more of a dialogue than a monologue, although many managers for some reason do not understand this.
It is correct to give information to your subordinate in general, and in the form feedback, in particular, is simply necessary.
Why? Yes, if only because the timeliness of this action will motivate your employee to be creative and to take preventive work to avoid mistakes in the future. After all, we all know about the importance and necessity of timely action. And most importantly, correct feedback will help us achieve the desired results in our work!
If you’re going to give employees feedback, then it needs to be done. RIGHT! In no case should you limit yourself to such evaluation categories as “BAD” or “GOOD”. This will clearly not be enough for adequate feedback; in addition, the profit of your company from such a black-and-white approach to solving organizational issues may suffer greatly, and so will the emotional background of employees. In the absence of good feedback in the organization, a kind of “dead” silence sets in, leading to the absence of any interactions in the company.
To establish feedback with staff, you can simply ask three clear questions:
1) What are you already doing?
2) How do you see your work?
3) Do you think it is possible to do this job better and what is needed for this?
●Important! In this block, the main criterion should be positive. There should be no criticism or other negative verbal or non-verbal manifestations. Therefore, you should always start with the good. From what can be noted from the best side.
The next block should be the desire to stimulate the growth of your employee. This means that it makes sense to direct his thoughts towards creativity, towards improving his activities. Give him direction to accelerate and modernize his activities. This is where you can start asking questions: What can be done right now? This will allow your employee to prepare for active action right now.
●Important! If you have to make a comment, then do it constructively, essentially trying to change the person's behavior. Do not criticize his personality under any circumstances. The employee’s personality should be, so to speak, UNTOUCHABLE for you!
We can recommend using the following scheme: «+», «-», «+». It means: PRAISE (+) = SCORING (INDICATE, ACCELERATE, DIRECTION)(-) =PRAISE AGAIN (ENCOURAGE) (+).
The most interesting thing is that it is not necessary to just ask questions; you can, in the same or similar form given above, GIVE feedback to employees, in the form statements:
1) Tell the employee what he did well.
2) Prompt (declare) to him what he can do even better in the process of doing his work.
3) Invite him to do this immediately or recommend the implementation of the process at a certain point in time.
So, if in your leadership you use a similar feedback scheme with subordinates, then they will in no case be offended by you.
Use this and the results will pleasantly surprise you!
Moreover, you will notice significant changes in motivational sphere employees of your organization in the direction you, as a leader, need.
Use this and the results will pleasantly surprise you!
Thanks to the increased attention paid to feedback in modern companies, many employees quite clearly understand their strengths and weak sides, areas of professional and personal development.
In conversations with a career consultant, they quickly give examples of their successes and failures, rely on objective facts and authoritative opinions - sometimes they even bring with them the results of psychological tests, which reflect their character traits and motivational features.
However, in the life of a career consultant there are other examples when the client was not given high-quality feedback for a long time, no independent assessment competencies, perhaps he has never even applied for a job “off the street” - he has not had interviews or received advice from recruiters, and perhaps he has not changed jobs for a long time or he had a significant break in his career.
All this can lead to the client’s self-image being greatly distorted compared to the opinions of other people - those on whom the success of his career depends. And then the responsibility for giving feedback and “bringing the client back to reality” falls on the career consultant.
The task of a career consultant is to help the client achieve his stated goal. After the client has determined the goal, it is necessary to assess whether the client has enough resources to achieve it, find hidden reserves, assess what is missing and what risks may arise. The SWOT model can be used as a structure for such an analysis.
The subject of analysis is professional experience client, his competencies, values, interests and motivation are assessed. Depending on qualifications, a career consultant may conduct the assessment himself, or may involve third-party experts or use psychometric tools.
In any case, based on the assessment results, it is necessary to provide feedback to the client. It is she who will become the support for the client, from which he will push towards his goal. It should be taken into account that if for some reason the client does not accept the feedback, this may undermine confidence in the consultant and the client will not advance anywhere. So the skill of developmental feedback is one of the key skills for a consultant. It is the consultant who is responsible for the client’s reaction after feedback. This does not mean that the client must agree with every word, the main thing is that trust is maintained between the client and the consultant and the client is ready to remain in dialogue.
General feedback rules:
Preparation – a clear understanding of the main ideas that you need to convey to the client;
Appropriate place and time for meeting;
- “Positive throw-in” at the beginning of the meeting (this can be anything: from a compliment to an anecdote; the important thing is to relax the client, charge him with energy and positivity);
Maintaining eye contact throughout the entire communication period;
Emphasis on what is important and significant for the client - his goal, needs, motivation, limitations;
Respectful attitude towards the client’s personality;
Fewer value judgments (“Try yourself in sales”), instead, more indications of specific behavior (“I noticed that in your story about working in sales there was a lot of energy. What does a job in sales mean to you?”);
Using metaphors and personal examples (“You know, this reminds me of a story... Let me tell you about it? .... What is this story about for you?”)
Acceptance of the client's right to his own opinion.
Ideal feedback is when the consultant completely starts from the client’s words, as if returning his own words to him. This ensures that responsibility for his own choices is transferred to the client.
In order to include the client in the work as an expert of his own experience, you can use the technique “ Scaling" It is done as follows:
1. The consultant asks the client to rate on a scale from 1 to 10 how competent/successful he is in a particular area.
2. The client rates himself.
3. The consultant asks the client why he did not rate himself lower - then the client describes his strengths- what he is already doing, what he is good at.
5. Summarize and discuss what actions the client needs to take to move higher on the scale
Based on the feedback, the client should understand what specific steps he needs to take to achieve the goal or at least begin to move in its direction. In addition to understanding, what is important is his internal readiness and desire to act in a given direction.
If a career consultant has managed to achieve this effect, he can praise himself for his excellent work. It’s even better if the consultant asks for feedback for himself, directly asks his client: “How was the session? What valuable things will the client take with him? What was missing? What could be improved?” In long-term work with a client, mutual feedback strengthens trust and develops the client’s skill in giving feedback in both directions (not only accepting, but also giving high-quality feedback, which is always useful for career development).
It happens that an important employee or an old employee suddenly leaves loyal customer, and you don't understand why. You don’t understand because there is not enough feedback - there is no dialogue between you. If you work with feedback correctly, you can avoid such situations.
Why do you need feedback?
Feedback gives Additional information and helps to better understand each other in order to avoid surprises and surprises. Without her, everything falls apart.You thought that the employee understood you, but he did the wrong thing and will have to be redone. We wanted to write to the client tomorrow, but he asked for an answer today and a conflict resulted. You left a request on the website and are waiting for confirmation, but the letter went to spam and your mother will not receive a gift for the New Year.
Feedback is any reaction to an event or action. It is present everywhere: they pressed a button - they heard a characteristic click, they broke the rules - they received a fine, they let a client down - they lost it, they offended a cat - they found a surprise in their slippers. The answer to a question is also an example of feedback. They asked a question, received the information they needed, received a clarifying question, or received a rude response. Any of the options is feedback that you can work with. In the article we consider working with clients, subordinates and management.
Feedback principles
Feedback is a tool in the hands of the performer and the manager. If you use the tool incorrectly, at best, nothing will change, but you can cause harm. Therefore, before giving and accepting feedback, look at the principles of working with it. Benefit Feedback is based on a goal - what needs to be improved. All participants must understand it equally. Without a goal, you will waste your time.The client left a request - show that the request was received and will be processed.
Specificity Dialogue will not work if the participants do not understand something or the information has not been verified. Therefore, feedback must be clear and accurate.The client asked a simple question, and the manager answers technical terms And circuit diagrams- the information is accurate, but dialogue will not work.
Productivity It is not enough to understand the goal, you need to strive for it and remove distracting, counterproductive factors. There are two of them: switching to personalities and emotions. Timeliness If you rush or be late with feedback, you can devalue it. There is no general rule about when to give it - it depends on the situation, it can be constantly, instantly, in advance or later.- At a traffic light, the countdown to the green signal is constantly needed.
- If you launch the program on a smartphone, it should open instantly.
- Explain to your child in advance that stealing is bad; at 30 it will be too late.
- Do not rush to punish an employee - you need to understand the situation, check the facts and wait until you are alone.
The training intern made ten mistakes, you discussed and eliminated only two - eight were fixed.
Marat Akhmetzanov technical support manager
I went from a simple specialist to a manager in onlinePBX technical support. I worked on the first and second lines, was a senior specialist, and have been heading the department for the last two years. Since 2015, I have conducted hundreds of interviews with candidates, participated in the creation of a training program, built quality control and implemented KPIs. vk.com/another_generation
Five rules of feedback
The principles answer the question “what kind of feedback should be”; in this chapter we will look at the basic rules of how to give. 1. Check the information Before giving feedback, check the accuracy of the information from the original source, check the facts, recalculate the numbers. Trust is difficult to earn and easy to lose. 2. Control your emotions It is important to control your emotions and not get personal, and also to care about who you give feedback to. Don’t push on and don’t make others feel like fools; under stress, a person stops taking in information. 3. Ask questions Feedback is a dialogue; you need to involve the interlocutor in the conversation. During the conversation, constantly clarify: they still understand you, they agree with you, what the interlocutor thinks. Perhaps you missed something and need to go back. 4. Suggest the next step Keep in mind the goal and what you want to improve. Therefore, the result of feedback is the assignment of the next action or solution options. If this is not done, uncertainty arises. 5. Summarize So that everyone has the same understanding, summarize: what was the goal, what was discussed, what is the next action. It happens that we discussed it together, but understood it differently; a short summary at the end helps to avoid such situations. Now let’s practice giving feedback on the client Zhanna, the employee Igor and the manager Anatoly Borisovich. Let's look at it from the perspective of the person receiving the feedback: let's look at what's important to them, how they think, and what they expect.Customer Feedback
Zhanna lost her Internet and calls her provider. She needs to conduct a webinar on weight loss, so it is important to fix the Internet as quickly as possible.
1. Check the information
A technical support specialist should first check the failures on their end before advising you to reboot the router. There is no need to waste Zhanna’s time and irritate her with memorized phrases.
2. Control your emotions
If the router still needs to be rebooted, the specialist must patiently and thoroughly explain how to do this. You may have to repeat the same thing many times - don't get annoyed. Zhanna knows everything about losing weight and should not know anything about twisted pair cables, broadcast DHCP requests and the router firmware version.
3. Ask questions
During the process, you need to explain your actions and ask questions. What did you do, what does Zhanna see in front of her, did the green lights go out or not after the power was turned off. This helps to solve the problem consistently, not miss anything, and keep the client in the loop.
4. Suggest the next step
It is important for Zhanna that her problem is being solved and will continue to be solved. If the specialist does not see any failures, a reboot should be suggested. If that doesn’t help, suggest calling a technician. If the problem cannot be solved here and now, you need to offer an alternative: go to your neighbors, visit or cafe.
5. Summarize
At the end of the conversation, the specialist should summarize: talk about what they did to solve it, why it was not possible to solve it over the phone, remind you when the specialist will arrive and what to do now. If Zhanna is still unhappy, she cannot blame the specialist - he tried to help, was helpful and took care of her.
Feedback to employees
Designer Igor made the website layout not according to the brand book, it needs to be redone. If you delay, the team will not be able to deliver the project on time and will lose the bonus. The manager needs to “talk” about this with Igor.
1. Check the information
Before the conversation, the manager should double-check all brand books, style guides, and interface style sets. Write down the most critical errors. You need to explain to Igor using specific examples, otherwise it will be difficult to convince.
2. Control your emotions
Igor is an experienced and respected designer, although he made mistakes. In order not to lose a valuable specialist, you need to think about his feelings in advance. The manager should talk to him in private; it is unknown how he will react; if you criticize him in front of his colleagues, he may be offended and leave for another department or company.
3. Ask questions
The purpose of feedback is to understand the causes of the error and eliminate them, and not to reprimand the designer for “hack work.” If you ask Igor about the reasons, it turns out that he is overloaded with projects and does not have enough time to check everything. Superman syndrome prevented him from saying this before.
4. Suggest the next step
To resolve the situation and deliver the project on time, there are many options: work overtime, hire another designer, order outsourced work, abandon non-priority tasks, re-negotiate deadlines with the client. The manager and Igor must choose a suitable solution and agree on the next step.
5. Summarize
In conclusion, the manager must discuss both problems - the designer’s workload and the layout not according to the brand book. Repeat the decisions for each of them and remind about the next step - what the designer should do when he leaves the office. So, Igor is left with two options: confirm the agreements and go to work, or discuss them again.
Feedback to managers
Director Anatoly Borisovich canceled annual bonus due to the company's poor performance. But one employee has a mortgage and a son was recently born, so he came to the director to negotiate an exception.
1. Check the information
Anatoly Borisovich is an experienced businessman; he speaks with employees in the language of numbers and facts. Therefore, you need to prepare for the conversation: choose the right time, raise department indicators and calculate the contribution to the company’s profit, remember overtime and additional tasks.
Working on effective feedback in a company is not all positive and general pleasure, but a mandatory tool of management practice with clear deadlines, rules and frequency.
At the same time, how to prevent motivation from turning into demotivation in the process of building effective feedback, said the head of the personnel department ( Supply Chain& Regions) of FM logistic Yulia Meshcheryakova.
- Yulia, what signs can be used to understand that feedback in a company is effective? Please list.
Feedback should:
1. Be developmental, evoke a desire to change, and not a set of defensive psychological reactions and demotivation. Conclusion - you need to learn this. The company must implement a culture of feedback with a set of deadlines and rules for providing it, as well as an understanding of what to do next with this feedback received.
2. Start with the self-esteem of the person to whom it is given. First, ask the employee how he rated himself and why. Clarify what was missing to achieve the highest score (for example, if competencies are assessed on a point scale), why 8 and not 10, what tools would help improve the result. You will be able to assess the adequacy of self-assessment and generally understand to what extent you share a common understanding with the employee in assessing certain competencies. If there are several strong “gaps,” there is a reason to discuss the effectiveness criteria again.
3. Be fair in terms of uniform criteria. 5 minutes will not pass after the evaluation event, at which feedback was given, how your subordinates will compare your assessments of their performance with each other. Injustice in terms of assessments, wages and other things - often a more demotivating factor than negative feedback itself or unsatisfactory wages.
4. Follow the “correct” structure. Much has been written about this and there is no point in going into detail. General rule- sandwich, start with the positive, then point out areas of development, dwelling on each point in detail and listening to the employee’s arguments and ending not just with a positive message for the future, as, alas, this often happens, but with the development of measures further development with specific actions, deadlines and an image of the final result.
5. Have a form of dialogue and be constructive. What this includes: I-statements, factual specific examples behavior or use/non-use of a particular competency. Take a professional HR as your ally, he will help you figure out what methods you can use to develop the missing skills and abilities. Give the person you are giving feedback the opportunity to speak and give examples. And this should not be a formality. Be willing to hear feedback, and, as has usually surprised some of the leaders I've taught about feedback, be willing to adjust your actions and build collaboration.
- Are there any examples in your practice of sad consequences and ignoring problems with feedback?
Unfortunately, a lot. The most common is feedback based on the principle " if it’s good, then nothing, if it’s bad, get it and sign for it"Also, in a situation where there is no common denominator in assessing the processes and work of employees, each party will rely on their own opinion and assessment/self-assessment, which will give rise to discrepancies, speculation and a feeling of the absence of clear performance criteria or their... changing nature, which, as usually demotivating.
- What rules need to be implemented in the company to make feedback effective?
It is not rules that need to be introduced, but a culture of feedback. First, conduct training at least to the level of line managers and key specialists- what is feedback, its goals, types, rules for receiving and providing. Conducting such training, I opened America to many, arguing that feedback is a two-way developmental dialogue, and not a “call on the carpet”, that feedback must be learned not only to give, but also to receive, subordinates also provide feedback to their bosses, that There are several types of employees in terms of how they perceive feedback, and you must understand to whom you are giving it, etc.
Of course, there are departments where the manager and employees regularly exchange feedback, but it is better to introduce frequency: intermediate feedback during probationary period, after its completion, a dialogue between the manager and the employee once a year (can be linked to the annual personnel assessment, if any), feedback (including cross-functional) during large projects.
Feedback is necessary in the event of a conflict between departments: instead of exchanging dozens of letters, where each side proves that it is right, it is better to meet and discuss the mechanics of interaction and exchange opinions on each point. In my practice, there were many such cases, and in all cases, communications improved after a session of constructive feedback.
A culture of feedback must also be integrated into the system of personnel assessment and development of potential employees. Good practice - system internal assessment start applicants with a mini-training on feedback (1.2-2 hours), at the same time you will relieve some of the tension among employees, emphasizing that the event is not evaluative, but developmental.
First, you spell out the rules for feedback, and then give it to employees after each exercise and summing up the results. Interim feedback is also useful because it will help you see if the employee changes after receiving the feedback. For example, in the first assessment exercise, you gave feedback that you need to take more into account the interests of the client, come from the client (both internal and external), and in the next two you saw dynamics. Conclude that the employee heard you.
