The Necessity of Feedback

Feedback is effective listening

Whether feedback obtained verbally or via a survey, the person providing the feedback needs to know they have been understood and that their feedback provides some value.  Explain how the feedback is important and how this will be used.

Feedback can motivate

By asking for feedback, this will motivate employees to perform better.  Employees love to feel that they are valued and appreciated and like to be asked to provide feedback to help make decisions. Feedback from clients, suppliers, vendors, and stakeholders can be used to motivate to build better working relations.

Feedback can improve performance

Feedback can be mistaken for criticism. In fact, what is viewed as negative criticism is actually constructive criticism and is the best kind of feedback that can help to formulate better decisions to improve and increase performance.

Feedback is a tool for continued learning.

Continued feedback is important across the entire organization in order to remain aligned to goal, create strategies, develop products and services improvements improve relationships and much more.  Continued learning is the key to improving.

Why it is important to seek feedback?

• It is very important to seek feedback as this can spot problem areas that need to have action taken.
• Feedback identifies our strengths and weaknesses.
• Getting feedback helps us learn where we went wrong from the situation.
• To ensure that we are being realistic, we need to compare the feedback with our own assessment of any situation.
• Feedback is essential to see how the team is performing, and how we can change to make the team excel.Feedback is a realistic appraisal of a situation or project in order to learn and move on.

Experts studied the feedback strategies of more than 22,000 managers from around the globe.  Their study found that the leaders in the top 10% (in terms of providing feedback) had employees who were three times more engaged than those in the bottom 10%. This should be a wake-up call for all managers who think that their feedback doesn’t matter.

As you can see, a manager’s specific style will determine how engaged or disengaged their team feels on a daily basis. That said, giving no feedback at all is the worst option – as the study shows, employees are up to 50% less productive when little to no feedback is given.

Feedback lets your team members know that they are valued, appreciated and most importantly – noticed. They need to know that their contributions help to increase the value and worth of the company, and they need to know that you notice their work. Even when the feedback is negative, at least they know that someone is paying attention and their performance counts for something. If you fail to provide feedback, you have effectively shown your staff that you do not care about their output.

How to give effective feedback?

Guidance expert and former Google employee Kim Scott lays out an effective formula for providing useful and effective guidance to one’s employees. She uses the acronym HHIPP to explain her style of providing feedback that will help boost engagement in your organization. Feedback should always be:

• Humble;
• Helpful;
• Immediate;
• In Person (in private if it’s criticism and in public if it’s praise); and
• Doesn’t Personalise

Use this formula to tell your employees that you value their contributions and you will see your engagement and productivity skyrocket.