Why Feedback is Vital to any Leader and How To Encourage It
Running a business is no easy task. Consistent, accurate, and honest feedback from your employees is required to efficiently run a workplace.
Leaders that don’t collect, value, and act upon employee feedback do themselves, their workers, and their organization a disservice. This article uses a manager-employee relationship to illustrate important principles that can be applied to any leadership position.
Improve Your Leadership
When managers don’t consider their employees’ concerns, they throw away valuable information they could use to be better leaders. By ignoring this information, they lead blind. A great salesperson wouldn’t go into a sale with a vague understanding of what they’re selling. The same goes for leadership: great managers understand their team members’ abilities, ideas, concerns, and goals.
When you talk and listen, you won’t have to guess at what will boost company morale most effectively; you’ll know. You won’t have to guess which parts of the project need the most attention; your team will tell you where your help is needed. And you won’t be stuck wondering if your leadership style motivates people, they will tell you what you’re doing well, and what you still need to work on.
When you embrace feedback, you send a message to your employees that you value their hard work and are dedicated to making their lives better — it makes people feel valued and it makes you a better leader.
Motivate Your Team
Your employees are your most valuable asset; without their hard work, your company fails. Few would dispute this statement, but many employees don’t feel like their company’s most valuable asset. When employees feel unappreciated, their attitude and, subsequently, their work suffers.
Studies show employees who feel valued work harder, are more loyal, and more productive. A proven way to accomplish this is to listen. By seeking and acting on employee feedback, you show your employees their input matters. You also inspire them to initiate company-wide conversations about issues that affect them and their coworkers.
Helps Your Organization
An unmotivated workforce is synonymous with a high turnover rate and employee replacement costs. Unhappy workers, whose input is not considered, have little reason to stick around.
Companies must realize the cost of losing and replacing an employee is significant (between 6 and 9 months of their salary or higher!). Additionally, employees who see their coworkers leaving will more easily become discouraged, and are more likely to follow suit. If left unchecked, high employee turnover could kill your company.
How to Get Good Feedback
Encouraging employee feedback is something that you can start implementing today. Here are a few tips to help you make your employees feel appreciated and get their honest feedback.
- Ask Questions
Ask your team members’ opinions before making big decisions that affect them. To make more fair decisions, conduct polls and talk to people to better understand how a decision will affect them and their peers.
- Frequent Feedback
A yearly feedback form is not sufficient. Feedback is a gradual process of listening and responding. How can you expect to solve a year’s worth of problems all at once… or solve problems that have already come and gone and caused valuable employees to leave? Encourage feedback frequently.
- Follow Up
When an employee approaches you with a problem listen intently, show you care, and do what you can to help (no surprise there). But what many managers fail to do is follow up. Once you’ve addressed their concern, ask them their opinion of the solution that was enacted. Doing so makes you a more effective problem solver and shows you value your employees’ feedback.
Leading is not an easy job, but you can make it much easier for yourself by encouraging and listening to feedback. Championing employee feedback initiatives makes you a better leader, your employees better workers, and your company a better place to work at.
Further Reading:
Sources:
[1] Unappreciated Employees Cost You More: Here’s Why.
[2] Increase Employee Engagement by Making Them Feel Valued
[3] What does high turnover mean? Turnover rates, jobs, and causes.
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