Don’t skip this step when providing feedback

Photo by Kenan Buhic on Unsplash

Managers, your team needs your feedback. They want to know how they are doing and what they can do to improve.

This can be difficult for a manager, especially in a matrix environment where your team doesn’t work directly with you 95% of the time.

The job of a manager is to listen and to help their employees grow and point them toward greater levels of impact inside the company.

Invariably employees will encounter struggles and bounce up against areas of limitation. It’s your job as a manager to help them navigate the growth zone effectively.

Feedback is huge part of it. Listening for areas of challenge as expressed by your employee or by those your employee works with. Dig into those challenges and truly understand the nature of them. Identify where the employee has an opportunity to improve, and what impact they can expect if they do or do not respond. Really think about the specific behavior change you want to see. Examples are invaluable here.

It’s been my observation as someone who both receives and gives feedback that these steps are normal and mostly followed. But, the one step I have forgotten and realized makes the biggest difference in how your employee receives the feedback is to actually engage them in the conversation. It’s easy to forget you are dealing…