9 Reasons Why Your Feedback Does Not Work!

Do you have any employees on your team who are difficult to give constructive feedback to? Do you tend to procrastinate giving feedback to some team members? Leadership is about developing people, and that includes giving difficult feedback to employees about their performance. Leaders who see corrective feedback as a partnership with their employees and an opportunity to encourage their growth and development reap great rewards in employee engagement and productivity. Yet, many leaders avoid the opportunity to give developmental feedback or complain that, when they do, the feedback falls on deaf ears.

Here are 9 ways to ensure your feedback is heard by your team members and acted upon.

Ensure Your Goals are Crystal Clear – In many organizations where we consult, employees often tell us their goals are not clear. The manager knows the goals, but it’s as if they are keeping the goal a secret from the employees. No wonder employees ignore feedback or become frustrated with it; if employees don’t know what you expect, it’s difficult to meet your expectations. Making sure you are in agreement about the goal will give employees the opportunity to monitor their own progress and they will be more receptive to your feedback when improvement is needed.

Be Specific – Employees are not likely to “hear” your feedback if it is steeped in vague generalities that do not tell employees what to keep doing or what to change like: “You are a good leader,” or “You seem disinterested in your work.”  Feedback must be grounded in observable facts. For example, tell an employee, “I think you did a superb job of leading today’s meeting when you asked the team to submit solutions to the current problem and then incorporated their input into the final action plan.”

Give Timely Feedback – Do you save up numerous issues and address them all at once? When you address more than two problems at once, most employees put their fingers in their ears and decide the problem is you – they think you are too critical and difficult to please.  Address the need for improvement with employees when the concern first surfaces. When you have performance improvement discussions on a routine basis, you will never need to address more than one or two issues at a time.

Do Not Sugarcoat – Some leaders manage by “Hope and Hint.” They are too afraid or uncomfortable being honest with critical feedback so they drop indirect hints and hope the employee will get the message – which they never do.  Some managers also sandwich constructive feedback between two positive statements of praise.  Employees completely miss the importance of changing the problem behavior and then managers wonder why people don’t do what they ask.

Be direct with your feedback.  Address the problem behavior and ask for the team member’s input on the problem. Then, work together to identify a solution.

You vs. I – When you start a sentence with “You,” people automatically take a defensive position. Think about your response to these statements: “You seem confused,” or “You need to improve your skills.” If you are like most people, your first response would be, “I am not confused” or “I have a lot of skills.” You’ll get a better response if you start your feedback with “I.” Try saying, “I may have created some confusion about this project that I would like to clarify.” Or, “I would like to help you improve your ability to process data without errors.”  Starting a sentence with “I” helps people let down their guard and opens up the conversation.

Hold Team Members Accountable – Too often managers we work with don’t hold employees accountable for the goal or expectation.  They may coach and counsel team members, yet there is no follow through or accountability. Therefore, no reason for employees to take their feedback seriously. Follow through is everything in helping employees make lasting change. Good coaches are also clear about the consequences of not improving performance.  Employees deserve to know the severity of the problem and that inattention to the problem could jeopardize their job.

Give Feedback Privately – Do you give feedback to the entire team, hoping that the person who needs to hear it will get it? Again, they never do. Instead, everyone who is meeting the goal or expectation wonders why you are talking to them, and often become disillusioned with your constant criticism of their good work. Another problem for leaders who handle feedback publicly is providing personal feedback to one person in front of the entire team. Belittling or demeaning a person in public never gets the results you want. You will also earn a reputation as a bully, and productive employees will begin to fear your public wrath. Make individual feedback just that – individual.  Choose a private location and speak directly with the person whose behavior needs to change.

Don’t Talk AT People – You talk at people telling them what they did wrong, what impact it had, and what they better do differently.  All the employee hears is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah… and go about their way. You will be more effective if you have a two-way conversation with employees. Ask team members for their thoughts about the impact of their behavior and get them to agree their behavior is a problem and change is needed. Once they agree change is necessary, they are more likely to work with you to identify solutions.  When they participate in identifying the solution, change is more likely.  Without the acknowledgement that change is needed, behavior is likely to remain the same no matter how many times you tell them.

No Surprises – I wish I had a dollar for every time an employee told me the only feedback they get is at their annual review and that it is usually late.  A lack of regular feedback communicates to employees that you don’t care about them and that they are not important. If you save all the feedback for the annual review, you don’t give team members a chance to improve over time. It’s not fair to rate an employee “Needs Improvement” if this is the first they have heard of the problem.  Provide feedback to team members on a frequent and regular basis so they have every opportunity to earn an “Exceeds Expectations.” It they do, you will earn a reputation as a great leader of a productive team.

Practice Makes Perfect – Prepare for conversations with staff members and practice your presentation. The more feedback you give, the better you will be at giving developmental feedback that helps employees achieve success. Most importantly, convey that you are there to help the team member and honestly believe in the person’s ability to make the changes required to do the job well.