A few last thoughts on effective feedback.  Effective feedback needs to happen regularly.   I have seen many managers fall into the trap of only giving feedback when it is corrective feedback (meaning the boss has identified that something that happened that shouldn’t have or something that didn’t happen that should have.)  Part of giving effective feedback is making sure that you recognize what your employees are doing right.  If you are giving effective feedback (in part as described in last weeks blog), your employees won’t panic when they are called to your office.  They will be expecting to hear something about their performance but it isn’t a guarantee that it will be corrective.  It might just be a compliment, after all. 

How do you make sure your employees heard and understood your message?  This is especially important when you are giving corrective feedback.  A great way to make sure that your employee understood the message you are conveying is by asking them, “What did you hear me tell you?”  Get them to describe back to you, in their own words, what they understood you to mean.  I’ve used this technique and been surprised at how a message that I thought I had delivered very clearly had ended up being understood as something very different.  This technique will allow you to clear up any misconceptions before your employee leaves the meeting. 

The most important thing to remember is this:  for feedback to alter behavior, the person who is receiving it must not be made to feel that they have to protect themselves, defend themselves, or reject the feedback all together.  If you use the techniques described above, you will minimize those feelings and allow the employee to do what you are asking them to do (or not to do).

Next week we will talk about the “Start, Stop, Continue” method for soliciting feedback of your own.