Giving Feedback
The Best Strategy to Engage Your Team
In a recent focus group, I asked the employees what type of manager feedback engages and motivates them. Interestingly, their ideas were not time consuming, expensive or too challenging, often the excuses you hear when you ask a manager how often they give positive and meaningful feedback to their staff. Here are some of their ideas:
- Having regular catch ups with their manager
- Managers hosting social events (lunches, bar-be-cues) to say thank you
- Team meetings where managers acknowledge the hard work and efforts of the team
- Managers who solicit ideas, opinions and feedback from their team
- Providing specific examples of what part of their performance can improve
- Working with individuals to create a constructive development plan and following up to see how things are progressing.
What can we learn? If you are a manager, find opportunities every day to talk to your staff not only about what needs to be done, but how you can help them achieve their goals. The value of having regular catch ups with and giving feedback to your team is probably one of the most valuable things you can do as a people manager. If you are an employee who feels you are not getting enough quality feedback from you manager, ask for it.
If you found this article useful, we recommend the following courses which may be of interest to you:
- Coaching Skills for Managers and Team Leaders
- Conducting an Effective Performance Appraisal
- Effective Workplace Communication Skills
- Essential Skills for Team Leaders and New Managers
- Team Building
- Handling Challenging People in the Workplace
- Giving Effective Feedback
- Lead and Manage Your Team Through Change