Feedback: Fueling Sustainable Great Performance on Your Team

 

 

What keeps people going, contributing their best efforts whatever the task?

Among the many possible answers, perhaps the most effective is feedback from the person’s supervisor. Effective feedback lifts the spirits and encourages people to contribute their best efforts.

 

Why People Need Feedback

Let’s personalize this! Suppose you take on a challenging assignment, which requires extra effort on your part. Not only do you invest your time, you go the extra mile and deliver your assignment on time and under budget. All in all, you’re quite pleased with what you achieved.

What happens if your boss is silent on your accomplishment? Chances are:

• You’ll assume that the assignment in general was of relatively low importance since you got no feedback.
• In the absence of getting feedback, people often assume a negative. So you may wonder if somehow what you did disappointed your boss or someone else up the line. Your confidence and engagement may take a hit.
• Experiencing no appreciation or direction means that you are less likely to actively seek out other assignments. When you do get asked to take on a project, you’ll do it, but why bother extending yourself if nobody notices?

Let’s suppose your manager is someone who primarily gives negative feedback in the form of criticism. He or she points out a few things he or she thinks went wrong, but infrequently acknowledges all of the things that went right. If this describes your manager, changes are:

• You’ll likely remember how you felt after receiving your boss’s stinging criticism, but forget exactly what it was that was he or she said. Any lessons here may be overwhelmed by the criticism.
• You may be a bit demoralized immediately afterwards, and feel less like going the extra mile. In other words, a hit to your engagement levels.
• You may even adopt criticism-avoidance behaviors in the future because of the negative feelings that remained. What do you have to do to avoid getting criticized, instead of what do you have to do to deliver exceptional results.

 

Two Highly Effective Methods for Giving Feedback

 

1. The SIPS Formula. The acronym SIPS give you the four elements for delivering effective feedback. In the graphic above, you can pick out each SIPS element at work:

In the example above, delivering the feedback took less than 20 seconds, a mere third of a minute. Angie will be on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day and guaranteed on her next challenging order, she’ll go the extra mile. A third of a minute in exchange for superior attitude and performance for at least a full day. Amazing!

 

2. The Five Step Formula

 

This approach works equally well for either positive reinforcement feedback, or corrective feedback. You can also apply the SIPS principles (specific, immediate, personal, sincere) when delivering feedback with this method.

 

Positive Feedback That Encourages

Let’s say that Sam is an installer working where the standard for a complete installation is two hours. Here’s what Sam’s supervisor says after noticing Sam’s installs are completed in just 90 minutes and customers rate the installations as excellent:

A positive tone of voice and open body language enhance the delivery of this feedback, making Sam aware of the impact of his accomplishment. You can bet he’ll give his best effort as a result.

 

Corrective Feedback That Encourages

Suppose Elle, another installer, takes 2.5 hours per installation but still receives generally positive customer reviews for installations. Here’s the same Five Step Method used to deliver corrective feedback:

Again, a positive tone of voice and open body language enhance the delivery of this corrective feedback. No accusations or accusatory tone, but warmth, encouragement, and concern. Elle walks away thinking about what needs to be done to get back to her prior performance, knowing her boss believes in her.

 

Bottom Line

How a supervisor provides feedback to his or her staff goes a long way toward building trust and encouraging optimal performance. Silence and criticism discourage optimal performance and are never effective methods of giving feedback. Successful leaders intentionally look for opportunities to provide regular, effective feedback to each member of the team. When this happens, overall performance rises and the entire team is more engaged.

This article is excerpted from our award-winning leadership development program, Leading Through People™ LTP21 Best Practices Feedback.

I love working with people and organizations who want to improve their effectiveness! Here are several outstanding resources that can help you and your organization to go to the next level:

• Improving your (or your team’s) management and leadership skills: Leading Through People™
• Raising your (or your team’s) selling effectiveness: B2B Sales Essentials™
• Conducting a more effective job search: Get a Better Job Faster™