What sort of training(if any!) you have received as a manager when it comes to giving feedback?
Was it a script? Few sentences to follow every time you have to challenge your people.
Internet is full of those, even online courses offer it as a solution. This might seem like a good solution and it actually works at the begin, but soon you and your team will realise that this is not the authentic you. Using a formulaic approach does not help you establish a relationship with your team that you are aiming to have. How about you? Do you feel comfortable using it? All too often I see managers walking away from giving feedback to avoid sounding like a robot.
The truth is, your people need your feedback, they expect it and will listen to it when it’s delivered well! Focus on creating safe space around you, psychological safety is a must for difficult conversations to take place and be productive, instead of an anxiety-inducing experience that managers and employees would do everything g to avoid it. There is no escape for giving feedback to your employees. The performance of your team, employee engagement and retention depends on it. Here is an article that demonstrates how important psychological safety really is: Google launched “Project Aristotle”, and the findings are telling!
That’s why my workshops starting from: Priming for feedback. Understanding what it takes to build safety around you, how our biases and blindspots working against us, and how to overcome them. You can find more about my programs here
I couldn’t help but put this short video together. It represents how people often feel when we follow the scripts instead of simply having a human to human conversation.
Have you ever felt like your manager is ticking the boxes instead of having a genuine conversation with you?