Feedback for the leader example according to Russell. How to do Confession

This is information about a person's behavior in the past, which is given to him in the present, hoping that it will affect his behavior in the future.
Feedback is key component in employee development. It helps not only to correct the mistakes of subordinates before they become habits, but also reinforces the desired behavior, stimulates Professional Development and ultimately helps employees achieve their goals.
In order to increase their own efficiency in the future, people need to understand very precisely how effective they are now. They need specific information on both strengths and areas in need of development. Feedback and is the very "mirror", looking into which people get the opportunity to see themselves, plan their own development and track progress.

Types and purpose feedback
positive feedback serves to evaluate the effective behavior of the employee and thereby strengthen this line of human behavior in similar situations. In cases of positive feedback, it is said that what was done well why it was good and what positive results led the actions of the employee.

positive feedback is a powerful tool for motivating employees. It is especially effective when it refers to specific behavior, although generalized praise also stimulates employees and increases their self-confidence. Among other things, positive feedback performs another important function - it tells others that the leader sees and appreciates the contribution of others to the common cause.

Negative Feedback serves to convey an assessment of ineffective behavior and is aimed at changing the actions of an employee. In this case, it indicates what was done incorrectly what are the alternatives behavior in this situation why their result could be better than as a result of the actions taken.

As a rule, it is easy for the leader see shortcomings in the work of subordinates. Much more difficult inform constructively report these shortcomings to subordinates in such a way as to guarantee their correction in the future.

Principles for giving constructive, positive and negative feedback

Principles of constructive feedback
Specific- describes a specific example of behavior that depends on the person; does not contain sweeping generalizations.
timely refers to a recent situation that is still fresh in your mind and that of the other feedback participant.
constructive- suggests behaviors that you would like to see in the future (especially with negative feedback).
With consequences- indicates the consequences of this behavior: how it affects you, others, the work process.
Educational- aims to help in development.

Principles for giving positive feedback to an employee
To make your positive feedback more effective:

1. When expressing your praise to an employee, highlight a certain aspect of behavior, a specific trend - make it clear what you value most in his actions (for example, compliance with deadlines, high productivity, commitment to quality, willingness to work overtime to achieve results).

2. Point out to the subordinate the positive consequences of his actions. Let him know why you value his success so much and why it is so important to you that it be repeated: talk about the impact that success will have on you, on your team, on the organization as a whole.

3. Express your feelings - talk about satisfaction, joy or admiration for the actions of the subordinate.

4. Clearly communicate to the subordinate what behavior he should follow in the future.

5. Look for any opportunity to reward an employee for specific types positive behaviour. Develop the habit of seeing situations that deserve encouragement. With this support of the desired behavior, subordinates will demonstrate it more often.

♦ How often do you praise them?
♦ Do you see the contribution of individuals to the overall success?
♦ Do you appreciate this contribution?
♦ Are your praises in response to concrete achievements or caused by a favorable state of affairs in general, a good mood?

Principles for Submitting Negative Feedback

To increase constructive criticism and its effectiveness, follow these principles:

1. Respect the person's need for the privacy of criticism. Try to express your comments face to face.

2. Talk about the employee's behavior (for example, "you delayed making a decision on this issue for two days"), not about his personality (for example, "you are not able to make decisions and take responsibility").

3. Tell the employee about specific facts, avoid generalizations.

4. Specify the specific negative consequences of the actions of the subordinate. It is known that in 90% of cases of "ineffective" criticism, bosses get off with general phrases ("decrease in labor productivity", "decline in morale", etc.).

5. Personalize your statements - talk about your feelings. The phrase "I was very upset when I found out ..." will have a stronger effect than the impersonal exclamation "This is simply unacceptable!".

6. Give comments in a calm manner. Be sure that you are in control of yourself and are able to describe, and not "pour out" your feelings.

7. Be concise - get straight to the point and be direct. Remember that a person perceives worse when he becomes the object of criticism.

8. Be prepared for the fact that the employee does not immediately recognize the validity of your comments. When faced with criticism, people tend to become defensive, so don't try to win the subordinate's agreement right away. Just tell him your assessment and make sure he understands it. Give him a chance to think about your words.

9. Maintain the necessary balance of positive and negative information. Before giving an employee serious remarks, say a few words about those qualities that you appreciate. Beginning with remarks, end the conversation with your overall confidence in the subordinate's ability to succeed.

10. Strive for dialogue, avoid lectures. Give the subordinate the opportunity to present his vision of the problem

11. Focus on future actions. Do not "hang" on finding out the reasons for the mistakes made - this will only force the subordinate to look for new excuses. Move quickly to the questions “What will you do to prevent this from happening in the future?”.

12. Communicate to the subordinate not only the punishments for bad behavior, but also the benefits of good behavior.

13. At the end of the meeting, ask the subordinate to repeat in his own words what he needs to do to improve results. By doing so, you will not only test understanding, but also confirm that the subordinate is committed to improvement.

14. If you have a particularly difficult conversation ahead of you, play it mentally. possible scenarios. Think not only about how you will express your comments, but also about what you can hear in response and how you will react to it.

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Working on effective feedback in the company is not a continuous positive and universal pleasure, but an indispensable tool for management practice with clear deadlines, rules and frequency.

At the same time, how to prevent motivation from turning into demotivation in the process of building effective feedback, said the head of the personnel department (Supply Chain & Regions) of FM logistic Julia Meshcheryakova.

- Julia, by what signs can you understand that feedback in the company is effective? Please list.

Feedback should:

1. To be developing, to cause a desire to change, and not a set of defensive psychological reactions and demotivation. Conclusion - you need to learn this. The company must implement a culture of feedback with a set of deadlines and rules for its provision, as well as an understanding of what to do next with this feedback received.

2. Start with a self-assessment of the one to whom it is given. First, ask the employee how he rated himself and why. Specify what was missing to the highest score (for example, if competencies are evaluated on a point scale), why 8 and not 10, what tools would help improve the result. You will be able to assess the adequacy of self-assessment and generally understand how much you have a common understanding with the employee in assessing certain competencies. If there are several strong "gaps" - there is a reason to speak the efficiency criteria again.

3. Be fair in terms of uniform criteria. 5 minutes will not pass after the evaluation event, where they gave feedback, how your subordinates will compare your assessments of their performance with each other. Injustice in terms of grades, pay and other things - often more demotivating factor than the negative feedback itself or unsatisfactory wages.

4. Correspond to the "correct" structure. Much has been written about this and there is no point in dwelling on it in detail. General rule- a sandwich, start with a positive, then point to development zones, dwelling on each point in detail and listening to the arguments of the employee, and end not just with a positive message to the future, as, alas, this often happens, but with the development of measures for further development with specific actions, deadlines and the image of the final result.

5. Have the form of a dialogue and be constructive. What it includes: I-statements, actual concrete examples of behavior or use / non-use of a particular competence. Take a professional HR as an ally, he will help you figure out what methods you can use to develop the missing skills and abilities. Give the opportunity to speak and give examples to the person to whom you are giving feedback. And it shouldn't be a formality. Be willing to hear feedback, and, as has usually surprised some of the executives I've taught the rules of feedback, be willing to adjust your actions and build collaboration.

- Are there any examples of sad consequences and ignoring the problem with feedback in your practice?

Unfortunately, a lot. The most common is feedback based on the principle " if it's good, then nothing, if it's bad - get it and sign it". Also, in a situation where there is no common denominator in assessing the processes and work of employees, each of the parties will rely on their own opinion and assessment / self-assessment, which will give rise to discrepancies, speculation and a feeling of the absence of clear performance criteria or their ... changing nature, which, as usually demotivating.

- What rules should be implemented in the company in order for feedback to become effective?

We need to introduce not rules, but a culture of feedback. First, conduct training at least to the level of line managers and key specialists - what is feedback, its goals, types, rules for receiving and providing. Conducting such training, I opened America to many, arguing that feedback is a two-way developing dialogue, and not a “call on the mat”, that feedback must be learned not only to give, but also to receive, subordinates also provide feedback to their bosses, which According to the nature of perception of feedback, employees are of several types and you must understand to whom you are giving it, etc.

Of course, there are departments where the manager and employees regularly exchange feedback, but it is better to introduce periodicity: intermediate feedback during the trial period, after it ends, a dialogue between the manager and the employee once a year (can be tied to the annual staff assessment, if any ), feedback (including cross-functional) during large projects.

Feedback is needed in case of a conflict between departments: instead of exchanging dozens of letters, where each side proves its case, it is better to meet and talk about the mechanics of interaction and exchange views on each item. In my practice, there were many such cases, and in all communications improved after a session of constructive feedback.

The culture of feedback must also be integrated into the system of personnel evaluation and development of potential employees. Good practice- start the system of internal assessment of applicants with a mini-training on feedback (1.2-2 hours), at the same time relieve some of the stress from employees, emphasizing that the event is not an assessment, but a developmental one.

First, you pronounce the feedback rules, and then give it to employees after each exercise and summing up. Intermediate feedback is also useful in that you will see if the employee changes after receiving feedback. For example, in the first assessment exercise, you gave feedback that you need to take into account the interests of the client more, to go from the client (both internal and external), and in the next two you saw the dynamics. Conclude that the employee heard you.

Translation - Victoria Oleshko, portal "Management of production", the material was prepared on the basis of data from http://www.iienet2.org

It is pointless to provide an assessment of those actions that the feedback recipient is not able to control. Consider the following situation. Alvin, an aspiring logistics manager, recently joined BAC Distribution. One day, a customer rang asking for shirts to be delivered for an upcoming trade show the next day. The matter is urgent as the customer forgot to call the manufacturer and supplier of BAC Distribution a week ago to apply in due course. Alvin decided to work a few hours overtime to make sure all the required models were packed and ready to ship the next day. Due to the urgency of the order, the Gildan shirts (composition 50% cotton and 50% polyester) that this customer usually ordered were out of stock. But Alvin found Gildan 100% cotton shirts in the warehouse, which, according to other customers, were just as good, if not better. This information was given to the customer at the time of delivery and no additional payment was made from him. Alvin was sure that he accepted the right decision, satisfying the client's request in a short time.

However, the client perceived the changes as a violation of normal standards, and in a meeting with his manager, Alvin heard words such as "disappointment" and "predicament". Alvin felt stung by his supervisor's comments. It seemed to him that his proactive behavior and hard work were not recognized. He wanted to know if he was up to the job and if there was a chance that his efforts would be recognized in the future.

The situation described above in which Alvin found himself is not unusual. We all care what others think of us. Unfortunately, in most cases, the assessment of behavior is given when something bad happens, not something good. One of the interviewed managers noted that, as a rule, feedback is 20% positive and 80% negative. Such statistics are surprising, especially considering that managers themselves evaluate their work well in 75-90% of cases.

The Importance of Feedback

So why is feedback so important at work?

The information is usually directly related to the recipient and can be seen as a motivating factor or a way to detect errors. Feedback is important because it gives a person the opportunity to recognize their strengths and points in the direction to maintain and improve the quality of work. However, at present, all the benefits of feedback are not fully exploited.

As stated in the article by D.R. Ilgena, K.D. Fisher and S.M. Taylor in the Journal of Applied Psychology: “The process by which an employee receives effective feedback consists of several steps: “Feedback given → Feedback received → Feedback understood and noted → Recipient wants and intends to respond → Recipient answers."

This model makes it clear that the employee must be receptive to feedback and have a desire to use the information received. Only in this way can feedback be effective. However, everyone reacts to it in their own way.

Consider the types of reactions to various types of feedback (positive, negative and no feedback) in the process of work in order to understand how this reaction is influenced by the following factors: the characteristics of the recipient and source of feedback and its structure. Analyzing these key factors, you can develop a more effective feedback system in which everyone clearly understands their role, owns the tools for setting goals, and continues to learn to maximize their effectiveness.

Feedback types

positive feedback. Positive feedback encourages improvement in the quality of work. It has been shown that more often than not, people value positive feedback more than negative feedback and find it more accurate and correct because it is more enjoyable and self-esteem boosting. However, continuous positive feedback can hinder the growth of the quality of work performance, because. its recipients may be satisfied with the current state due to the fact that they always receive high marks.
negative feedback. On the other hand, negative feedback is often associated with failure. A negative assessment is often rejected simply because of the person's unwillingness to perceive unpleasant information. While recipients of a positive assessment easily accept recognition of their merits, recipients of a negative assessment, who are immune to information, easily shift the blame to other people or external factors. Negative feedback often causes unpleasant feelings that force a person to look for an excuse for poor performance. However, in some cases, the recipient may realize the need to change their behavior in order to avoid receiving negative feedback in the future. Although a person may improve his performance as a result of receiving a negative evaluation, he may not exhibit the desired behavior if he does not receive appropriate instructions.
Lack of feedback. At the same time, some experts argue that the presence of feedback in itself, whether positive or negative, can contribute to the improvement of work, while the absence of any evaluation really harms the employee's personal effectiveness. A study of 243 service industry employees published in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly T.R. Khinkin and K.A. Shraysheim showed that the lack of feedback was detrimental to both those who performed well and those who performed poorly. Imagine that some have to work overtime just to get the same recognition as others who have worked only the minimum required hours. On the other hand, a person who performs worse than the rest and receives no hints that it is necessary to change his behavior will be extremely surprised if he receives a reprimand later. In both cases, the result will be disappointment in performance and poor performance.

Since the purpose of feedback is to motivate and inform, we believe that the ratio of positive and negative information that a person receives is very important. A good balance: three positive statements followed by one negative. If performance is low but the employee is doing their best, the manager can start the discussion by acknowledging the employee's efforts and willingness to do a good job, and then identify the direction for improvement. It is also important to prioritize the employee's areas of development, giving him no more than one or two areas of effort at a time, to ensure that the goals are perceived by him as feasible.

Features of recipients and sources of feedback

How feedback is received depends largely on who the recipient is. Previous research has focused as much on personal self-esteem as it has on a person's ability to set goals. Self-esteem can have a decisive influence on how a person perceives negative feedback. Employees with low self-esteem are more likely, in response to negative feedback, to think that poor performance is due to their low level of competence and that extra effort will not lead to better results.

On the other hand, some research suggests that negative feedback can also be harmful for individuals with high self-esteem. Such people have their own expectations and perceptions of the quality of their work. Most likely, they will not accept feedback that contradicts their self-esteem, and will attempt to save their self-esteem and perception of their level of competence. As a result, a negative assessment will be perceived as incorrect, and performance indicators will not improve. So it can be concluded that such feedback, which does not look credible and is not accepted by a person, can be destructive to the quality of his work, regardless of whether he has low or high self-esteem.

However, sometimes negative feedback can be beneficial. Those who set personal goals may use this information to identify and solve problems, and may seek it themselves. In particular, S. Ashford and L. Cummings in the journal “Organizational Behavior and Human Performance” (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance) expressed the following idea: “the desire to receive feedback can improve the quality of work, contributing to the achievement of goals, helping to prioritize a variety of tasks and offering information that enables a person to evaluate their competencies. So while receiving this kind of information may initially give rise to unpleasant feelings, for those who set themselves goals, it makes it possible to realize how important it is to hear about their poor performance in order to avoid repeating these mistakes. In addition, such people seek feedback when they are not sure about the quality of their work and are looking for Additional information to help them improve. Thus, negative evaluation can be an important tool in improving the quality of work by informing recipients of their potential weaknesses Oh.

While the characteristics of feedback recipients are important in determining how the evaluation will be received, another important factor is the source of the feedback. Feedback is more likely to be accepted if it comes from someone who is reliable, trustworthy, and who has reached agreement with the recipient on performance metrics. For their part, managers should evaluate employees only on directly observable performance and involve other stakeholders in the organization in the process of providing 360-degree feedback.

An appraisal from a reliable and trusted person looks more correct if the recipient perceives the source as an expert with the necessary competencies to correctly evaluate the results of the work. In such a case, even if there is disagreement between the recipient's self-assessment and the assessment given by the source, the recipient may see a rational grain in this information. The recipient's awareness of the need for improvement will allow him to adjust his behavior accordingly.

One way to increase the perceived reliability of a feedback source is to create a rating system based only on performance that can be directly observed. Previously, the manager was the only one evaluating the quality of the employee's work, but today 360-degree evaluation is becoming more common. This method involves receiving feedback from the entire circle of people with whom the employee contacts daily. This group may include the direct manager, senior employees, subordinates, colleagues, customers, suppliers, as well as the employee himself (through self-assessment). The manager should agree on a list of daily contacts with his subordinate to ensure that the list is complete and provides the best opportunity to assess the quality of the work. An additional advantage of the 360-degree method is the ability for the employee to evaluate others himself, which helps everyone to get involved in the feedback process.

In addition to the source of feedback, there is another important factor: it is obvious that a person responds positively to an assessment when they are in agreement in understanding good and bad indicators with the person evaluating him. Indicators may depend on both personal factors (for example, ability and / or effort) and on factors environment(for example, luck and / or a good situation).

In cases where the feedback recipient believes that poor performance is due to external factors and the source believes that they are related to internal factors, there is disagreement. Disagreement increases the likelihood that the feedback will not be taken seriously and is likely to be ignored in the next step as well. In contrast, if both (source and recipient) agreed with each other about the reasons for poor results, the recipient was more likely to trust the source and be more receptive to criticism. Therefore, it can be concluded that if the recipient believes the information provided to him is true and reliable, he is more likely to change his behavior.

Feedback structure

In his book Developing Management Skills, D.A. Wetten and K.S. Cameron offer eight rules for effective team feedback that can work at all levels of an organization.

First rule: to focus on actions that are under the control of a person, as opposed to focusing on less tangible personal qualities. For example, "You're 15 minutes late to an appointment" is more effective than "You're sloppy at your job."

Second rule: when providing feedback, rely on the results of direct observation, without making hasty conclusions and generalizations.

Third rule(follows from the previous one): Feedback should be descriptive (using facts and objective data), not evaluative (using the words “right/wrong”, “good/bad”). Details allow the recipient to focus on specific areas of work, rather than guessing what needs to be improved from the entire range of their duties.

Fourth Rule: be specific. Like details, specificity can help change future behavior. Concretization of feedback ensures clarity of the information conveyed, allows the recipient to understand exactly what is expected of him, and helps to unify the sometimes very complex relationships between effort, behavior, and result. It has been found that feedback, especially negative feedback, can be misinterpreted. The expected behavior will not be achieved without a full understanding of the feedback from the recipient. Therefore, concretizing feedback helps communicate key areas for improvement and reduces the possibility for the recipient to misinterpret causes, actions, and results.

Fifth Rule: Feedback should be about current actions, not past behavior. Past behavior can no longer be changed, and focusing on it negates any improvements the person may have made in the past.

sixth rule: possible ways for improvement should be discussed with the recipient so that he is involved in the process of identifying changes.

Seventh Rule: The amount of information provided in one assessment step should be determined by the feedback needs of the recipient. Too much a large number of Information overload causes the person to stop listening, and too little causes frustration and misinterpretation.

Eighth rule: Feedback should be given at the right time and place, face-to-face, and allow for two-way communication.

Both positive and negative feedback, provided there is some balance, can be beneficial to the business, while the lack of feedback is almost always harmful.

The organizational context is also important. Companies need to properly design and implement employee appraisal programs that involve all departments. Feedback and the involvement of all employees in it is especially important to reduce the feeling of bias (for both "favorites" and "fallen out of favor"). Knowing that all employees are being evaluated eliminates thoughts such as “Am I the only one getting comments like this? Am I punished? It also allows colleagues to think more about actions and their consequences, their directions for development and ideas on how to improve the process to make their work easier.

It will also be appropriate to consider the expectations of all parties involved in the evaluation so that they feel comfortable and accept the very idea of the evaluation. Since every part of an organization works differently, the HR department should develop guidelines and guidelines for each department. It should be clear that feedback for employees who work in environments that require active interaction with others will focus on assessing interaction skills ( soft skills). On the other hand, groups of employees involved in production should expect to receive feedback that focuses primarily on the assessment of technical skills ( hardskills). Such differentiation can help in choosing areas to focus on.

Within departments, employees can decide how often to provide feedback. To determine the frequency of evaluation, it makes sense to take into account the work cycle time of the unit. For example, the quality control department can look at monthly figures to determine the dynamics of the development individual employees and the company as a whole. In this case, feedback meetings can be held on a monthly basis. On the other hand, some engineering projects can last several months. In such departments, feedback may be provided quarterly or even semi-annually, depending on the ease with which the information needed for the assessment is collected. And always remember that feedback should help, and this process should be gentle and not become a heavy burden for those involved in it.

The roles of the superior and the subordinate in the feedback process should be clearly defined. During the first feedback session, the supervisor can take minutes for subsequent sessions to create a collaborative atmosphere in advance. The first feedback session should help ease the confusion of those who are not accustomed to evaluation or are accustomed to a different style of giving feedback, such as employees from other organizations or a different national culture. The introductory meeting also gives the manager the opportunity to assess the employee's work motivation and set or adjust goals if necessary. This gives both parties a chance to discuss and set goals for the next feedback session. The openness and honesty of the process should be emphasized. Feedback sessions can best be used as an opportunity for the development of the people involved in the process, as well as benefiting the long-term success of the company as a whole.

It is important to note that feedback must be obtained from a trusted confidant, which openly approaches the discussion of the reasons for both good and bad work. Two-way communication helps reduce misunderstandings and gives the recipient a voice in how to achieve better future performance. Feedback should allow the recipient to analyze what should be done and what could be done differently, instead of focusing on what was done poorly. In addition, feedback should not focus only on negative manifestations (which may discourage the recipient) or only on positive manifestations (so that the recipient does not “hang in the clouds”).

Instead, feedback should address both strengths and areas for improvement in order to maximize outcome. When discussing development directions, detail the feedback using examples to help the recipient understand the situation and how their behavior needs to be adjusted. As long as feedback is sincere and provides balanced information with sufficient detail, it can be effective tool to create a positive work environment where everyone clearly understands their role, owns the tools for setting goals and continues to learn, which leads to improved quality of work.

FEEDBACK FROM THE MANAGER TO THE SUBJECTS
Zeltserman K.B.
Office file #85 February 2006

A well-coordinated tandem "manager - subordinate" is the key to the success of many things in the company. And good leaders are able to organize this coherence. A constructive dialogue helps to remove all misunderstandings and disagreements between the leader and his subordinates. One of the components of such a dialogue is feedback from the leader to the subordinate. A leader who does not talk to employees, does not use feedback tools, will no longer understand what his subordinates think and feel and may miss a critical moment and the situation will get out of control. In this article, we will talk about what feedback is, how to properly organize a “feedback session”, where it is important and how to effectively apply it to a manager.

What is feedback to subordinates?

Feedback to a subordinate is the voicing of a reaction to certain actions of an employee. Why is this needed? First, it is a simple display of attention, which, as various studies show, often has a beneficial effect on the relationship between people working together. Secondly, timely feedback allows for preventive, preventive work on the employee's mistakes. Thirdly, feedback has a motivating function, it allows the employee to find out what is expected of him and what are the criteria for evaluating his work. And, most importantly, feedback allows you to achieve the desired results from the employee.

Feedback shows the employee how his work is evaluated. Therefore, not only a direct (oral or written) assessment of an employee's performance can be considered as feedback, but also various incentive tools as an indirect assessment tool.

These indirect instruments include:

thanks or accolades
rewards or deductions
promotion or demotion

All these tools show the employee whether his work is generally assessed as good or bad. However, sometimes it can be difficult for a subordinate to figure out what exactly he was rewarded or punished for. Therefore, feedback is effective only when the manager explains in detail to the employee what is good and what is not very good in his work. Therefore, the most effective feedback tool is a conversation between a manager and a subordinate, when the subordinate not only learns about the assessment of his work, but also has the opportunity to ask questions and clarify incomprehensible points.

There are various situations in working life when the use of feedback is not only appropriate, but also necessary, such types of feedback include:

Feedback, as an assessment of the current activities of the employee.
Feedback on employee suggestions.
Feedback on employee plans and reports.
Feedback about the attitude of the employee to what is happening in the company.

Let's dwell on the above points in more detail.

« Execution cannot be pardoned” or feedback, as an assessment of the current activities of the employee.

This type of feedback is the most commonly encountered by managers. Evaluation of an employee's performance occurs almost always when a manager accepts the work of a subordinate. And since the manager is directly interested in improving the performance of the employee, simply assessing the categories “Good” or “Bad” is not enough. You need a rationale for where it is good, why it is bad and how it should be corrected.

Studies confirm that when analyzing the behavior of other people, the majority overestimate the influence of a person's nature and his personal capabilities and underestimate the influence of the specific circumstances in which his real activity takes place. For example, the manager is likely to attribute the reason for the unproductive work of a subordinate to the lack of personal capabilities of the employee, and not to the current situation at his workplace. This phenomenon is known as the fundamental attribution error. That is why it is very important, when evaluating an employee, to talk with him, finding out his situation, in what context of events he was, and what influenced the results presented by him, etc. It is this approach that will allow you to avoid mistakes in assessing the work of an employee and be objective.

Purpose of feedback on current activities: evaluate the work of the employee, show what has been done well and it is necessary to do the same in the future, isolate the shortcomings and discuss ways to correct them. In addition, it is important to show the employee the significance of his work for the company, to motivate him.

Basic rule: Feedback should be constructive and factual.

You can’t turn feedback into scolding or praising an employee: “What a great fellow you are!” or “Well, you give, who does that!”. Feedback ideally should contain the highlighting of the strengths in the activities, behavior of the employee and weaknesses - places that require correction, reserves in the improvement of the employee.

“I shout, and in response - silence!” or Feedback on employee suggestions

From time to time, enterprising employees come to managers with their suggestions for improving the way they work or the situation in the company. It is very important to support such initiatives, to demonstrate that such behavior is welcome (even if the proposals themselves, for some reason, are not accepted).

Employees made a lot of suggestions on how best to build a non-material motivation system and were looking forward to seeing how their proposals would be translated into reality. The approval of the document lasted three weeks, the employees "caught" the leader in order to make their proposals again and again. However, the changes proposed by the staff were not made. All sorts of rumors, speculation, discontent spread throughout the company. Only the speech of the head explaining why the proposals of employees cannot be used at the present time, removed the tense situation in the company. However, further suggestions from the manager to discuss something in the company were met with “interrogations” in the style of “what can we expect?”.

Goals:

To support an initiative that contributes to the development of the company and its employees.
Preservation of optimal, working tools, systems, traditions; increasing their importance in the eyes of the employee.
Increasing the motivation of the employee / the formation of an adequate self-esteem of the employee.

Basic rule: If you are collecting employee suggestions, then you need to give feedback on all of them and take at least some action to show employees that the situation is changing or explain why their proposals are not accepted and nothing is changing yet.

After two or three proposals left without any attention, the employees give up. The absence of a "corrective" component of feedback on the proposal or initiative of the employee leads to the fact that a sensible proposal may be missed, or vice versa, the employee will consider himself a "super-hero", although his proposal is not adequate to the needs, strategy and values of the company.

Conversations with the provision of feedback are held as suggestions are received from employees. Depending on the complexity, strategic significance of the proposal (for example, a proposal to issue corporate pens, this is not at all the same as a proposal to develop new system motivation, let alone open a new line of business) and the elaboration of the proposal (voiced idea, pre-collected information, or already ready business plan), its discussion can take from 5 minutes to 1 hour. In rare cases, well-researched but highly ambitious or non-trivial strategic proposals can take up to 2 hours to discuss.

In preparing for such a conversation, the leader should:

Examine the employee's proposal (written document, conversation).
As a first approximation, evaluate it: relevance, novelty, timeliness, necessity, adequacy, etc.
Make a decision and prepare arguments for refusal or, conversely, give the go-ahead to the employee and determine what needs to be further developed.

If the employee himself does not say something, then you need to ask leading questions. It is important that the employee speaks all of the above himself, then he will be more realistic and critical about his proposal.

Feedback on the employee's proposal should be built as follows:

What is interesting, well thought out, presented
What and where can be improved
Dot the "i" in terms of relevance, feasibility, adequacy, etc.
Issue a general verdict: accepted / not accepted; now / after a certain period of time.
Agree on next steps.

« Just because I didn't say anything doesn't mean I don't appreciate your work. » or Feedback on employee plans and reports

Feedback is present where there is control. The manager must control the implementation of plans by employees, but before control, this plan must first be discussed and approved. This can and should be done using feedback.

Feedback on the discussion of the employee's plans

Feedback on the plans is provided to the employee as often as the plans themselves are prepared. It is better to discuss weekly plans, for example, sales managers every week (5-10 minutes): for control, motivation, prioritization. And monthly plans are discussed, respectively, every month.

The structure of the meeting to discuss and approve the plan can have two scenarios. In the first case, if everything in the plan suits you, you need to inform the employee about this, and if he has questions or needs to discuss some important details, help him.

If the presented plan requires adjustment, then the manager needs to decide:

That he gets tired in this regard and can be left.
Clearly decide what exactly does not suit the plan and needs to be changed, finalized (for example, the formulation or setting of goals, measures to achieve them, prioritization, availability of indicators and deadlines).
Then the leader must initiate a discussion on issues that cause difficulties for the employee, or suggest sources of information, set the direction of “thoughts”.
Agree on the timing of the submission of the revised plan.

Feedback on discussing employee reports

Reports should not be a bureaucratic atavism, at least they should not be perceived as such by employees. Yes, indeed, the manager does not always have time to talk in detail about the report with the employee, but simply “collecting them on your desk or in the closet” is also not the case. Moreover, if the employee “reporting” does not hear anything in response, he may decide that “everything is bad”, even if he is a very good employee, or vice versa, that “everything is fine”. The minimum that should be done is to notify the employee that the report has been successfully accepted, to note the most outstanding achievements and achievements of the employee.

If the report requires adjustment, then feedback on the employee's report is given according to following scheme:

The manager tells the employee that he is tired of the work done during the reporting period, which was done well.
The manager tells the employee what he does not like and needs to be changed (what goals, indicators have not been achieved; what tasks have been prioritized incorrectly; where deadlines have been missed; where the quality of work is not satisfied; level of responsibility, initiatives, etc.)
The manager discusses with the employee what is the reason that he did not complete this or that task (not qualitatively; not on time, etc.); what helps, what hinders in solving the tasks; how he will correct the situation, achieve his goals; what will he do in the future so as not to repeat such mistakes, situations.
The manager sets priorities in solving problems, misses of the employee.

After providing initial feedback on plans and reports, the manager and subordinate need to do a few more:

The employee corrects or supplements the plan or report, taking into account the feedback from the manager.
The manager studies the corrected documents.
The manager provides final feedback (written or verbal) to the subordinate.

Feedback on the attitude of the employee to what is happening in the company (changes and innovations)

Target: to avoid misunderstanding by the staff of the tasks assigned to them, the strategy and corporate values of the company.

Usually, in order to implement changes in companies, employees are informed. "We have decided to live in a new way." In order for the changes to be implemented the least painlessly (as you know, not everyone wants to change), it is very important to ask employees what they think about this, what concerns and objections they have. For these purposes, they use employee surveys, the "suggestion box" method, personal conversations with employees. As in the situation with the proposals of employees, in no case should the concerns of employees be ignored. Thus, feedback to employees should include:

“Joining” to the situation of employees “I understand that the upcoming changes bring a lot of new things for all of us and …………”
Praise employees for justified concerns and named risks “It is very good that you have noticed that this will change in this situation, and we will have to ………”
"Dispelling Myths". Next, you should answer the objections of employees known to the manager, while giving additional information, because, as you know, the roots of almost all objections lie precisely in the lack of information.

In conclusion, let's outline the basic rules for providing feedback:

Feedback must be! You should not hope that the employee himself will understand everything just by the look of the head or meaningful silence.
Feedback must be timely. It makes no sense to discuss a year later that “that project was failed because of you, because you then provided the wrong data and did not deign to check it. Of course, we didn’t tell you, because you wouldn’t have had time to fix anything anyway ... "
Feedback should be both positive (for good - to praise) and negative (for bad - to scold). But even when giving negative feedback, it is important to find something to praise the employee for. And you need to start with an assessment of what is good in the work of an employee.
When providing feedback, it is important not to get personal (“how badly you did, because you are lazy and mediocre”), but to talk about actions (“I evaluate your work badly, because the deadlines were violated and the information was presented haphazardly, unstructured”).
To be constructive, feedback should be more specific. Contain facts, not opinions or generalities. Not "I got the impression that you began to work without enthusiasm", but "I observe that you have stopped making suggestions."
To give effective feedback to a conversation with a subordinate, you need to prepare.
No need to immediately expect that immediately after the feedback everything will change dramatically “I told you yesterday!”. Unfortunately, the feedback session doesn't work like a magic wand. Change is a long and complex process, sometimes it is necessary to repeat many times and the same thing, because the habits of doing something in a certain way go away only with time and with the right reinforcement of the desired behavior.

Providing feedback to subordinates is one of the most powerful HR tools. If the feedback is organized correctly and systematically, then this allows the subordinate to achieve a positive attitude towards comments addressed to him, understanding and acceptance of criticism, as well as a willingness to correct shortcomings. Subordinate, ready and striving to correct his shortcomings, isn't such an employee the dream of any leader?