3 Simple Rules for Giving Feedback
Leadership expert Dan Erwin passed along some great advice on Slacker Manager the other day about how to give effective feedback.
According to him, giving feedback is phenomenally difficult for most managers:
"There are a lot of reasons why you don't get useful feedback. Your boss fears it'll blow up in his face. Your boss probably never got useful feedback either. Your boss thinks you can learn without his feedback. Your boss doesn't have the necessary language or process to give feedback. Bottom line: your boss doesn't know how to give constructive feedback."And could the same be said about you as a manager? If so, it's time to break the pattern. Erwin offers three simple rules for providing effective feedback.
- Don't blame. Dwelling on the past is a waste of time. Pay little to no attention to past failures, lest you give them new life and lingering power.
- What's going well? Find out what your employee is doing and what's made it successful. Learn to look for what's going well, and why.
- What needs to go better? Don't answer for your team member, but wait for his or her response. When this question is answered thoughtfully, often all you have to do is a bit of joint problem solving.