Giving Feedback to
Your Team
I have a client who is in the process of significant culture change in their team. He routinely onboards new professionals who bring inconsistent workplace behavior expectations from part-time or grad school positions. One of the elements of his current role is giving feedback to people who are new in the organization and often new to full-time professional standards. He worries that the team thinks he is being “nit-picky.”
We talked about how to create an environment of encouragement - how to give feedback in constructive and positive ways.
Several behaviors on the part of the client will foster a better feedback loop! First, we talked about the instances in which he has given positive feedback – either specific praise or encouragement. Turned out that he did so, but often in group settings and as a blanket comment for the whole group. Thus, the feedback isn’t in real time nor is it individualized. Second, I asked about how he phrases critical or corrective feedback. He has lots of opportunity to grow his skill set in this area. He isn’t always sensitive to the setting in which he offers his notes, and he has a tendency to let things go too long before addressing them. Lastly, we identified strengths of his feedback style and found good behaviors on which to build: he is excellent at identifying his expectations and at ensuring they are objective.
As a result of his own behaviors, he has created a situation in which he believes he seems like he’s being over-critical. He’s right! His feedback is typically negative, which makes him seem like more of a grump than he is (and he feels crummy about how it is received). Resolving this trend may take a few weeks, but changing some of his own habits will reset the feedback loop. I reminded him that he is the driver of the feedback bus, and he can set a new course.
Here’s what he will be doing to shift:
Intentionally seeking opportunities to give authentic, individualized encouragement and praise. Suggestions include: stopping by someone’s office after a meeting to thank them for speaking up during a gnarly conversation, emailing an organizer of an event the day afterward to tell them you’ve heard good things about it, telling people how something you heard them say to students or peers that was insightful.
Pro tip: Feel like this behavior is awkward to you? That’s because you aren’t used to it. Practice makes perfect. Make it a goal to praise an employee every day (yes, EVERY day) and put a reminder in your phone to do it, or combine it with something you do every day, like drink your coffee. Let it become more natural over time, but commit to this shift in your behavior. Your staff will flourish.
Reframe the idea of “negative” feedback. As educators, we love to learn and are grateful for an opportunity to do so. Framing minor shifts in behavior as an opportunity for an employee to learn is consistent with our training and personal instincts. This client will be choosing to approach feedback as mentorship opportunities, meaning he feels more comfortable addressing them sooner. He’s cultivating conversation openers that are consistent with teachable moments – and feels much more like his style.
Caution: You can still document these conversations should they become patterns of difficult behavior that need to be addressed in performance reviews.
Give yourself credit for your strengths. This client is good at managing his emotions and staying objective about the actions that need to be corrected, and he didn’t realize how valuable that skill was until we talked about it. He is confident in his ability to see issues that need to be corrected, and can discuss them with his staff without second-guessing himself. All of us have natural strengths in feedback – some of us are great at helping staff look for solutions, some are great at seeing the bigger picture of student/campus impact, and some of us know how to let things go easily. Find yours, give yourself credit and build from there!
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to be better at their work. And I know very few people who enjoy hearing criticism. When you are the leader who knows ways your staff can grow, you have the power to put a tool in their toolkit – so cultivating your style for sharing learning opportunities is worth the effort.
