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Nobody likes to give negative feedback to their co-workers. For many leaders, it can be one of the most challenging aspects of their managerial role. Despite being difficult to deliver, according to Harvard Business Review, 92% of employees believe negative feedback can effectively improve their performance. So, how can team leaders deliver it to ensure maximum impact?
Employees Crave Constructive Feedback
Having the ability to give feedback to co-workers can prove to be a significant learning curve for individuals who are new to managerial and leadership roles. Managers can assess the effectiveness of their feedback by seeing whether their co-workers have actively taken steps to improve their performance and meet objectives.
With the stigma attached to negative feedback, managers can sometimes forget to provide actionable steps for improvement when reviewing the performance of a co-worker. In research by Harvard Business Review, 72% of employees feel that their performance would improve if their managers provided corrective feedback. Managers can use corrective feedback to reinforce expectations and keep employees on target to meet goals and objectives.
The desire to receive feedback in the workplace stems from a longing for clarity of expectations. Imposter syndrome is all too common in the workplace, with employees having low self-esteem and doubting their professional skills and abilities. A 2017 survey found that a third of millennials suffer from imposter syndrome at work.
Employees want to know if they aren’t performing well in the workplace.
By knowing, it allows them to stop second-guessing themselves and ignite a sense of progressive direction.
Engaging Employees With Regular Feedback Intervals
An exceptional team leader can in many ways be likened to an orchestra conductor. They are responsible for making sure that the output of the collective is harmonious. When a player’s performance is negatively affecting the collective’s output, the orchestra conductor may be tempted, with their experience, to grab the player’s instrument and show them how it is done. Instead, an effective orchestra leader will provide the player with corrective feedback at regular intervals to bring out their best performance.
The impactful management of co-workers is all about course correction. Vague comments about performance can only lead to misunderstandings. With this in mind, team leaders should try to use solid data when giving regular feedback to co-workers. After reviewing a co-worker’s performance, team leaders should set agreed-upon goals and objectives that are attainable and close enough to motivate and energize the individual in both the short and long term.
It is vital for team leaders to be in tune with the overall strategic vision of the company they work for. Employees want to be able to see the bigger picture when it comes to the small and mundane tasks they have to undertake on a daily basis. Any uncertainty or doubt around a particular target and how it will contribute to the wider success of the company will lead to confusion and eventually, disengagement in the workload.
Karma Bot Facilitates Micro-Feedback For Workplace Teams
Waiting until the next quarterly review to provide employees with necessary course correction is a dangerous game to play. Between now and then, plenty of damage can be done to the overall effectiveness of your team if you delay the strategic remedying of performance issues. Like an orchestra, the off-target performance of one individual could be enough to disharmonize the output of the collective.
Micro-feedback keeps employees aware of their performance in the short term, whilst focusing on the strategic bigger picture and long term vision outlined by the team leader. Without disrupting your existing workflows, Karma bot can bring micro-feedback into the core of your business operation, offering seamless integration into Slack. With our intuitive workplace tool, employees can receive feedback at regular intervals from their team leaders, ensuring short and long term company-wide growth.
Ready to start fostering a high-performance culture in your workplace with micro-feedback? Get employee feedback on a regular basis via Karma bot.
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