How important is it for leaders to provide regular feedback to team members?
I think we all know the answer – it’s vitally important!
Yet a surprising percentage of people say they don’t get enough feedback, negative or positive!
Consider the following excerpt from an article published by thoughtLEADERS,LLC:
“If you are a manager, the chances are great that you dread giving honest feedback to your team members on a frequent basis. And yet it is at the top of the list of what employees today want and need from their leaders. This is particularly true for younger and highly skilled employees who can and will leave your organization if they can find better opportunities and development elsewhere.
“This trend is building steam. In Gallup’s massive longitudinal study on the employee engagement of workers at all levels and across the globe, there was no more important indicator of satisfaction and willingness to stay on the job than whether or not someone in their workplace (usually a manager) had talked with them recently about how they were doing on the job. A quarter of global employees in the same survey reported that they received no feedback at all from their supervisors, and this was a major factor in their workplace dissatisfaction.
“In a study of more than 3,600 employees, 51 percent of them said that they received too little constructive criticism from their boss, and 65 percent of those who did receive feedback, either positive or negative, said they didn’t receive enough information to know what to repeat or change. People want to know exactly what they need to do to perform well on the job.”
The piece goes on to identify four faulty assumptions they have identified in their work with magagers and supervisors:
- Faulty Assumption #1: People will become discouraged if I give them corrective feedback
- Faulty Assumption #2: I want to be fair and make sure I have plenty of accurate observations before giving feedback
- Faulty Assumption #3: I don’t have time to schedule these feedback sessions
- Faulty Assumption #4: If i give people honest feedback they won’t trust me
The above-listed assumptions might also be considered “excuses” from those who simply don’t like giving feedback or those who aren’t very good at it. Either way, the most effective leaders provide their teams with regular positive and corrective feedback.
For more details you can read the full article here.