Feedback Without Discomfort: The 4 Key Habits to Make This Practice More Natural
I don’t need to tell you that providing feedback is one of your most important responsibilities as a leader.
If you don’t provide feedback, the team continues to repeat undesired behaviors, potentially creating even larger and more difficult conflicts to resolve.
But you already know all this theory, so let’s talk about practice.
Even though you might have taken several courses on how to give feedback, when the time comes, pointing out the team’s behavioral errors can be uncomfortable, especially if you’re afraid of hurting an employee’s feelings or causing tension in the workplace.
The good news is that there are ways to give constructive feedback without feeling bad.
Here are 4 habits to help you prepare and provide effective feedback:
- Gather specific examples of the behavior or action you would like to discuss.
Make sure the feedback is constructive and will help the employee grow in their skills and responsibilities.
Instead of saying that you want the person to be more proactive, say: “Yesterday afternoon, when you were called about the xyz problem, I expected that you would already start looking for a solution, rather than waiting for me to come back to the room and tell you what to do. I don’t mind if you make mistakes, as long as you try to do something. It is important for the company that we have the shortest possible time with this type of problem installed, as it greatly harms our revenue.”
2. Strive to make feedback impersonal.
Focus on the specific behavior or action and seek to link it to the impact generated on the indicators.
Example: “When our team arrives late, the process takes longer to start running. These are 15 minutes in which the entire company is idle, compromising 3 to 5% of our daily production. Therefore, the importance of always arriving on time.”
3. Be transparent and direct, but without losing respect.
Be careful not to let yourself be carried away by the emotion of the moment. If you’re very nervous or stressed, take a few minutes to calm your spirits before talking to the employee.
4. Ask open-ended questions to make the conversation productive and collaborative.
“How do you think this could have been done differently?” or “How do you think we can work together to improve this?”
Remember, giving feedback is a skill that can be improved with practice.
With these habits, you’ll be able to provide effective and constructive feedback without feeling bad.
