Making it Easier to Give Feedback
At Magoosh, the managers periodically get together for collaboration sessions. We’ve found that sharing challenges with each other is a very effective way to learn and improve. We recently discussed the topic of how to give feedback to our team members. The following tips came out of that collaboration session.
Don’t wait
Most managers find it challenging to bring up a stale topic or old feedback. The longer you wait, the harder it is. So don’t wait! It’s important to jump in and talk about it as soon as possible.
Create many communication channels
Having different channels for feedback (in-person, email, Slack, Asana, etc.) can make it much easier to provide feedback. Most employees want to receive feedback and are willing to listen to feedback, if it is delivered in a way they expect. Figure out what works for people and use that channel.
Get on the same page
At Magoosh, all employees have created short guides for how they best receive feedback and these guides are public to everyone in the company. Managers can reference these guides before giving feedback to their team members. Here’s a link to my guide.
Balance
Many managers forget to share appreciation (positive feedback), and only start thinking about feedback when they have coaching (critical feedback.) Remember that your team members are likely performing well most of the time and you want to acknowledge that. Share appreciation regularly, so that it’s easier for you to give and for them to receive the constructive feedback.
Not all feedback is equal
Don’t forget — feedback is a big category. Be specific about what you want to say.
- Do you want to provide appreciation to an employee for taking on a challenging situation and handling it with poise?
- Do you want to coach someone on how to communicate requests better so there is less back and forth?
- Are you providing an evaluation of someone’s performance after a quarter of work?
You must create a shared understanding of these different types of feedback as well. Once that’s in place, you’ll give better feedback and people will be more open to receiving it.
You first need to care
Finally, building a strong rapport and trust with employees can make this easier. If you often go on walks, get boba, or hop into a room to talk about all types of things, then it will be less difficult to talk to them about an incident or give constructive feedback.
