Page 152 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

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Supportive Feedback

whether the feedback is positive or critical. All feedback should
simply be considered supportive. If we care about people, we
give them feedback even though it might be embarrassing. On
several occasions I have been asked by CEOs to tell an executive
that he or she had bad breath, had body odor, or invaded others’
personal space. Without exception, the person appreciated the
feedback and was upset that no one told him or her sooner. Have
you ever had an undone button or zipper and no one told you?
Wouldn’t you have appreciated hearing about it?
Second, let your team members know that you have set a goal
to give more feedback “in the moment”—don’t start doing it out
of the blue. Tell employees that you realize how much more help-
ful you find feedback when it is relevant and fresh as compared
to appearing months later during a performance evaluation. Let
them know that if the feedback is at all corrective in nature, you
will be giving it in private. Emphasize that your goal is to pro-
vide feedback that is helpful—just like any coach would do for
his team members. Encourage employees to provide you with
regular feedback, and thank those who do so.
Third, when you begin giving feedback, keep it mostly posi-
tive and very short. For example, “Jim, I just wanted to let you
know what a nice job I thought you did on that e-mail newslet-
ter,” “Carmen, that was an excellent point you made in the meet-
ing this morning,” and “Greg, good catch yesterday with that
missing invoice.” You want to practice and get comfortable using
positive feedback. As discussed in Chapter 5, “Recognition,” you
want to be as specific as possible with your feedback.
After a few weeks, begin looking for opportunities to offer
some light suggestions to employees. For example, “Tom, I
noticed that you had a tough time getting your point across in
that meeting. Can I offer a suggestion? [Wait for employee to
respond affirmatively.] I think it would have been more powerful