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Newsletter November 25, 2010 Breathe New Life Into our Team With Positive Feedback . |
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We all want motivated people in our organisations. Being around motivated people and working with them keeps our energy levels high and makes the workplace a great place to be. So how do we motivate people? One of the greatest motivators of people is feedback that is regular and constructive. People want to know whether they are doing a good job, making a difference and contributing to the goals of their organisation. Yet many managers find it very difficult to give feedback and I’m not just talking about feedback where there is under-performance. We talked about that in the last newsletter. They even find it difficult to give feedback which praises performance and achievements. In this newsletter, we are going to explore this and suggest some strategies for doing it. Next time we will look at other ways to motivate by rewarding employees for a job well done. Here’s to your success creating
teams of highly motivated high performing people!  Maree Harris. PhD.
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Breathe New Life Into Your Team With Positive Feedback
A recent Hewitt Best Employer study of 37,000 employees revealed that only 52% said that their managers inspire them to higher levels of performance. A survey by recruitment firm Talent 2 found that 16% of bosses never say thanks and 14% say thanks only when employees reach the top of the mountain. Only 34% of senior managers say they get thanked. The survey also found that of those who do receive feedback, 43% said that it only comes as part of the formal review process. 67% of people who leave a business voluntarily do so because they felt the business didn’t care about them – SmartCompany.com, Lou Coutts 2009. Positive feedback can make all the difference here. It can turn these figures on their head.
Feedback is The Breakfast of Champions!
When managers make the giving of positive feedback a part of their management style, they are building relationships with their employees that inspire commitment, loyalty and engagement. It invokes good feelings in employees about their organisation and their manager. They are motivated and inspired to higher levels of performance. As well, by giving positive feedback you create purpose for them. Because you value their contribution, they come to feel that what they are doing is not just a job that gives them money on which they live. You are helping them see that they are very important to the building of this organisation, that their unique contribution is significant. They feel fulfilled. Positive feedback can also stretch people, making them aware of potential they were denying or not recognising. It can help people build strengths and enhance them for the good of the organisation. Great achievers and successful people will often say that they are where they are today because someone believed in them more than they believed in themselves – and gave them positive and affirming feedback. Finally, if the good that people do is constantly recognised, then people are also more likely to respond positively when feedback needs to be given about improving performance. This is, what Stephen Covey calls, the emotional bank account process. When we deposit heavily into an employee’s emotional bank account with positive feedback and affirmation, then, if at some time in the future we have to make a withdrawal by calling them to account for their less than satisfactory performance, we don’t bankrupt the relationship. There is plenty of goodwill there still. Some Tips on Giving Positive Feedback.
Give Feedback Face to Face. In the days of email and text messages, this has to be noted. When you get up out of your chair, walk to an employee’s office and give them positive feedback, you are giving them yourself as well. They recognise the effort you put in to do it, unlike sending an email or a text message which can very easily say: “I want to say this to you, but I haven’t time to come and tell you. You are not an important enough priority in my day.” That said, there are times when it is appropriate, but these are rare occasions, not the norm and they need to be followed up as soon as possible with a face to face interaction. Give Positive Feedback Publicly. A general rule of thumb is to give positive feedback publicly and negative feedback privately. Even while saying this, however, know your people because some will not want to be publicly thanked. They will be very embarrassed and uneasy about it. Give Feedback Regularly and Immediately. To get maximum impact and results from feedback it needs to be given on a regular basis. This creates a culture (the air that is breathed in an organisation) that inspires and motivates not just the person getting the feedback but everyone else as well. It also needs to be done at the time the manager becomes aware of the good work done – not at a meeting a week or month later. Make Your Feedback Specific, not General. Don’t just be general, e.g., “Thanks for what you did today”. Be specific, e.g., “Thanks for what you did today resolving that problem with that client. You obviously have some real skill in negotiating good outcomes with difficulties like we were encountering there. You are able to remain calm, empathise with the client and get them working with you towards a solution”. You could also go on if you wanted: “Let’s talk some more about that because the company really needs someone with highly developed skills in that area. We would like to support you in further developing those skills if you were interested.” Understand the Difference between Affirmation and Feedback. This highlights the difference between affirmation and feedback. Affirmation – that is, letting your people know they are doing a good job – certainly helps and creates good feelings in the organisation when done regularly, however people can learn very little from it. “You’re doing a great job. Keep it up.” What does that mean? What can someone take away from that? He cannot repeat that level of performance – “Keep it up” – if he is not exactly sure what his manager thought was good about it. Feedback, however, where you specifically detail how and where they did a good job, is what allows employees to understand what you expect of them and how they can improve their performance and that motivates them to do even better next time. When we affirm a certain behaviour it is more likely to be repeated. Specific feedback like this can be highly motivating. Some “Indirect” Feedback can be Very Motivating. This is where you tell your employees with your actions that you value them and that they are very important to your organisation. You remember things about your employees that are important to them and you make reference to them as part of your relationship with them. This builds enormous loyalty. Your employees feel very connected when you genuinely are interested in their lives:
Give Feedback Directly to Your People, Rather than Letting It Drift Back to Them from Someone Else. If you are very satisfied or exceptionally pleased with the work one of your team is doing, make sure you tell them to their face. If they hear from someone else that you have been talking about them “behind their backs” – yes, even when you are saying positive things about them! – it can have negative repercussions. If my manager is very happy with my work, why won’t she tell me? This can erode trust in some cases and actually lead people to leave the organisation. Understand Generational Differences and Needs Regarding Feedback and Affirmation. For Generation Y feedback is very important. They respond well to structure and direction, but prefer flexibility in terms of when and how they achieve. Many Baby Boomers who may not have needed much feedback to motivate them in the past, may now need feedback to assure them that their contribution, experience and expertise is still valued. Begin Today! Take some time to work out which of these strategies best suit your management style, your team and your organisation and start today. Encourage your whole team to do it for one another and watch how your team and organisation begins to change.
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