Page 156 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

127
Supportive Feedback

1. Focus on behavior. Always focus the feedback on
the impact or consequences of the behavior; never make it
about the person. Also, never tell people they have a “bad
attitude”—if you do, you’ll really get a bad attitude! Make sure
to identify the specific behavior that you want, and explain
the importance and value of engaging in this behavior.
2. Schedule your feedback. To both prompt yourself and
be more efficient, schedule your feedback on your calendar
at the beginning of the week. Consider not just your own
schedule but others’ as well. When is the best time for your
employees?
3. In the moment. Use the idea of “coaching moments” to
give employees feedback as quickly as possible after a given
situation. The fresher the feedback the more helpful.
4. Role-play. Verbal feedback should be supplemented with
role-playing. Discuss the situation, have the team member
decide on a different strategy, and then role-play it with him
or her to see how it goes. Ideally, you would videotape and
then review the role-play with the employee; it is by far the
most powerful and effective training technique.
5. Frequency. A supervisor should spend a minimum of 5
percent of his or her day engaged in a feedback conversation,
or roughly twenty-four minutes in eight hours.
6. Batch your feedback. If you are going to spend twenty-
four minutes a day giving feedback, break it up into three
eight-minute or two twelve-minute periods.
7. Focused feedback. You can give people feedback on any-
thing and everything. To make your feedback maximally effec-
tive, focus it. For example, the feedback could be focused on
the tasks that are most important to the employee’s job or the
area in which the employee is having the greatest difficulty.