When people receive meaningful feedback, they have the opportunity to grow, leverage strengths and discover blind spots. Research done by Gallup shows that employees who receive regular feedback are 3.5 more likely to be engaged in their work than those who do not. Over 3 times!
Research published in The Journal of Applied Psychology showed that just 40% of managers reported providing infrequent or inconsistent feedback to their employees. If providing meaningful feedback yields higher engagement and productivity, why don’t more managers do it more often? One reason is that high performers often get promoted into a management role because they’re really good at what they do, but then don’t get the training they need to thrive in their new role. What we need to remember is that just because someone is a rockstar at coding doesn’t mean they know how to run a high-performing team of developers.
In our “Providing Meaningful Feedback” workshop, we provide a simple structure for delivering feedback that has an impact. We also offer best practices, such as including the ‘why’ behind the feedback. This is often missing in feedback conversations. Here are two examples of how simple it is to include the ‘why’:
- I noticed you’ve been late to the last 3 team meetings. When this happens, it wastes the time of the people who are there when we begin, and we tend to run over. Could you please plan to arrive on time in the future?
- When documentation is incomplete, it leaves others on the project with many questions, and it takes longer than it should for them to get up to speed. Could you please fully document your process going forward? This will save time for the entire team.
The one simple step of explaining why you’re providing the feedback and/or asking for a change in behavior has a greater impact on the person receiving the message.
Providing training, coaching and resources for new managers will not only help the manager thrive, but their team members as well. For more information about our Manager and #LeadershipDevelopment Programs, go to www.AlignedPerformance.com/leadership-development/.
