Mistakes leaders can avoid when giving feedback to employees

Giving feedback is not always easy. In fact, it can be so difficult that some people declare themselves incapable of leadership because they don’t want to give negative feedback to employees.

Feedback is absolutely vital for company performance and for an individual’s personal and professional development, and we are doing our teams a disservice if we don’t offer it.

The key is to offer feedback in the right way.

Many leaders make common mistakes when they are giving feedback to employees and this can breed resentment. The point of giving feedback is to encourage your employees to be better and to give them the support they need to perform optimally.

To get the best from your employees, avoid these common mistakes when giving feedback.

Cushioning the blow

Feedback can be especially stressful if an employee is underperforming.

Our inclination to build others up can feel like it’s in direct conflict with the criticisms we have to offer. Many leaders try to cushion the blow by giving positive feedback at the same time, or by watering down issues to make them more palatable. This behavior has good intentions behind it but ultimately harms both you and your employee. You risk distorting how the employee understands their mistake or poor work habit.

If your employee does not know the seriousness of their underperformance then how can they correct it?

So long as you’ve been working to foster good communication and openness with your employees, you should not be worried about giving your employees negative feedback, because they should already know you have their best interests at heart.

If you don’t have good communication and openness, that’s where you should start. Do not underestimate its importance, as it’s the foundation for strong teams.

Don’t wait too long

Nobody wants feedback that is too regular. Offering feedback too often can rob employees of the distance required from situations to grow from mistakes and successes, but giving feedback infrequently is not a good idea either. How are you going to make sure your employee is on track to make improvements if you’re waiting too long between feedback sessions?

You have lots to do, so you probably forget employee to employee where your staff need support and enhancement, and long gaps between catch-ups will only exacerbate this issue.

Your employees look to you for guidance and assistance, so make sure they know that you aren’t treating this as a bi-annual box-ticking exercise. Show that you genuinely want to guide them through milestones and help them improve. Meeting them on a fairly regular basis will help them feel supported.

Don’t drop a bomb then bail

Most employees care deeply about how they are viewed at work and will be upset or offended if they receive negative feedback. An invaluable part of giving feedback is to offer your support through solutions, so be careful you are not giving negative feedback without taking any responsibility for how you are going to help your employee to improve.

Sitting with your staff and working through the solutions to the issues you are facing together will help them feel optimistic and proactive, knowing they have your full support.

Give positive feedback often

Remember, most people do a lot more right than they do wrong. We’re not asking you to pander to employees by flooding them with meaningless praise, but do make sure you are regularly congratulating and thanking your employees for the things they do right and it will make any negative feedback easier to swallow.

Remember, feedback does not only mean ‘negative’.

It is really important you praise your employees, especially when we consider that 91% of HR experts believe that recognition and reward are the best ways to encourage employees to stay within their positions.

Avoid blanket feedback

We’re all individuals and we like receiving feedback in different ways, so make sure you’re communicating with your employees about the way they would like to receive it.

Some people do not like to hear the bad without a corrective. Some people really struggle with negative feedback and will need you to deliver with deep sensitivity. Others prefer an exact ratio of good to bad, then there’s the group who need five good points for every bad one or else they’ll find themselves ready to throw in the towel.

Ask your employees how they would like to receive feedback to make sure you are catering to their specific needs and be attentive to how they respond in real time.

Failing to document

What is the point of offering feedback if there isn’t a positive end goal. Like any end goal you have in your organisation, the best way to reach it is to set milestones and document progress.

Employee development is no different. You should treat the development of your employees the same way you treat any major goal within your organisation and approach it strategically, and a huge part of that is documentation of what you’ve learned, what you’ve planned, what you’ve achieved, and how you have done it.