Successful HR executives from Forbes Human Resources Council offer leadership and management insights.
As most businesses can attest, without proper feedback, there is no direction for what needs improvement. The same is true of employees. Unless they get feedback from superiors and peers, they can't know where to improve their personal and business dealings.
At the core of this is a healthy feedback process that doesn't lay blame on an employee. Instead, it changes criticism to suggestions, making it easier to cause change as the employee embraces the things their peers and superiors think of them.
Below, 14 members of Forbes Human Resources Council explore several strategic approaches that executives may use to implement healthy and supportive feedback systems to encourage employee growth and development.
Members share strategic approaches for creating an effective, healthy employee feedback process.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Create Safety
This means operating from a place of care and concern for an employee's development and well-being. Sometimes that looks like giving them space to make mistakes and learn from them or rewarding positive behaviors. Other times it looks like managers asking for feedback because feedback is a two-way conversation. When done well, you build the goodwill and trust that are necessary to have more challenging conversations along the way. Trust allows for risk-taking, which makes way for innovation and further development opportunities. - Mechelle Monroe, BrainPOP
2. Have Meaningful Conversations
Managers should always ensure that the feedback they provide is frequent, conversational, transparent and anchored in specific examples. There is nothing less meaningful for an employee if this is not the case. Gone are the days of the "management feedback sandwich" and the once-a-year performance evaluations. Engaging the employee in a dialogue and eliciting their feedback is also critical. - Aimée Meher-Homji, Sodexo
3. Break The Stigma
We have, unfortunately, made feedback a scary thing evoking immediate fight-or-flight responses in our reptilian brain. If feedback is to be effective, we have to break that stigma. Managers can do that by doing two things. First, ask for feedback constantly and frequently from your reports before you start to give feedback. Second, give positive feedback when observed, not just negative. - Bharath Jayaraman, JUUL Labs Inc
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4. Have Ongoing Meetings
Employees need feedback in order to develop professional growth. One strategic approach managers can take when setting up a healthy feedback process is to have an agenda framework the employee completes weekly to include success, challenges, project updates and support needed. Regular one-on-ones are more than meetings; they are a tool to drive positive business outcomes and talent development. - Sherry Martin, Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS)
5. Establish Personal Connections
Personal connection, getting to know your employees and how they work, is critical in the success of managing people. We need to feel safe and comfortable in order to take any feedback. - Jorganne Garcia, Peddler's Son Produce & Provisions
6. Be Transparent
Be transparent and don't blindside the employee. When a presentation doesn't go well, a 10-minute debrief on what could be done better next time is far more powerful than a surprise mention in the year-end performance review. The use of specific examples helps remove the ambiguity and allows for actionable corrective actions driving success. - Vineet Gambhir, Contemporary Leadership Advisors
7. Be Open To Feedback Yourself
Managers can indicate to employees that they themselves are open to feedback. This demonstrates to their team that feedback is a two-way street and their manager is interested in evolving and adapting her/his own leadership style in order to be a more effective leader. Through this manner of "leading by example," managers can then open up an employee's appetite for receiving feedback and growing. - Amee Pareekh, Uber Technologies
8. Build Trust
Employees know when the employer truly wants career growth for them. Operate based on the systemic issue, not the person who is presenting the feedback. Trust is earned. Once employees trust that the company values solution-oriented feedback and acts on it, the rest is just choosing the feedback tool. - Patricia Sharkey, IMI People
9. Ask The Right Questions
Asking the right questions is more important than providing direction. When you ask an employee, "What did you do well and what could you have done better?" it gives them the opportunity to evaluate themselves. This provides managers with insight into the employee's self-awareness and a baseline that guides the approach for further feedback. Managers can focus on blind spots and avoid belaboring. - Jeff Buenrostro, Metric Theory
10. Use Evolution In Your Favor
Before excellence or even listening, comes safety. If someone is "coming for us" (be it a wildebeest or a manager with criticisms), we are programmed by millions of years of evolution to send blood from our fancy 21st-century brains to our large muscle groups so we can run away. Use patterns (regular intervals for feedback, etc.) to create safety, listening and excellence. - Elizabeth Roberts, eGenesis, Inc.
11. Offer Support And Encouragement
Ensure that your feedback is coming from a place of support and encouragement instead of a place of dissatisfaction. Removing the defense barriers allows the employee to be more comfortable discussing and embracing the feedback. - Jenna Hinrichsen, Advanced RPO
12. Incorporate These Four Metrics
A good approach would be to incorporate the following metrics: 1) Frequency: Weekly; 2) Privacy: One-on-one; 3) Directness: Be direct with your feedback. Don’t sugarcoat. It’s OK to have a difficult conversation; 4) Empathy: Instead of just pointing out performance issues, try to understand what’s preventing an employee from doing their best work. They’ll know you care. - Nish Parikh, Rangam Consultants Inc.
13. Consider Employees As Individuals First
Often, managers give feedback that shapes employees in their own image. They also apply a mold to the whole team. This doesn't really benefit that person. Consider feedback that contributes to that person's strengths, weaknesses and goals rather than providing feedback that addresses your needs. Developing someone's strengths rather than trying to improve their weaknesses is a key goal here. - Karla Reffold, BeecherMadden
14. Reframe For Breakthroughs
The best feedback process encourages empowerment, self-discovery and problem-solving. It's not unusual for employees to get stuck on an idea or solution. One strategy for managers is to help employees reframe the problem by taking a different perspective. For example, ask what could go right vs. wrong or what is working vs. not working. Reframing changes the lens and unlocks possibilities. - Karen Crone, Paycor, Inc.
