I recently attended a conference by the association for associations and heard a great no-nonsense speaker about communication. Sherry Harley impressed me with her straightforward approach to communication and how it can build lasting employee relationships and foster growth. She recently posted an article about giving feedback to employees that I thought was excellent and could be used by our members. We recommend reading her post and having a discussion with all supervisors about how to give appropriate feedback. It is one of the most difficult things for a supervisor to do. If done right, it minimizes anxiety for both parties. Below is a snippet of the post and you can read the full article here.
Six tips for giving helpful feedback:
- Write down what you plan to say, then strip out half the words. Shorter feedback with fewer words is better.
- Practice what you plan to say out loud. Have you noticed that what you ‘practice’ in your head is typically not what comes out of your mouth?
- Before having the ‘real’ conversations, give the feedback to an independent, third party and ask her to tell you what she heard. Ensure who you talk with will maintain confidentiality. Your organization doesn’t need more gossip.
- Tell someone else about the conversation you need to have, and ask him what he would say. Anyone not emotionally involved in the situation will do a better job than you will. Again, ensure confidentiality.
- Ask the feedback recipient what he heard you say. Asking, “Does that make sense?” is an ineffective question. “Do you have any questions?” isn’t any better.
- Give one to three examples of what the person did or didn’t do, during the conversation. If you don’t have an example, you’re not ready to provide feedback, and anything you say will evoke defensiveness rather than behavior change.
Giving feedback doesn’t have to be so hard. Be so specific that your feedback could be used as driving directions. The purpose of feedback is to be helpful.
