5 Ways to Provide Efficient Feedback

Any type of feedback will always be essential in helping one develop and improve. The point of feedback is to provide a person with information that will tell him or her of the things that were done right, and the things that could use a few fixes.

It doesn’t matter who is given feedback. Whether it’s an employee in a large company or a teacher educating students in a school, these people deserve to receive information that could help them become more successful. So if you’re a manager of any establishment, learning provide productive feedback is what’s going to help you both you and your employees..

What Is Effective Feedback?

Effective feedback is something that every manager or supervisor must learn to give. It’s what will show people how they are supposed to perform, as well as telling them how to solve certain issues that could help them grow. Effective feedback has four basic characteristics. So to start, effective feedback should be:

• Timely: Feedback should be telling a person how far or close he or she is in reaching a certain goal. It’s very essential to have people be given feedback prior to their evaluation. This will tell them what they need to do such as adjustments or corrections to their performance to ensure that they reach their goals.

• Tangible. These are things that someone can actually do something about. When you’re giving feedback, you are going to have to be as specific as possible when telling that person what he or she should improve on. For example, if an employee does not voice out during group meetings, one does not just say “You’re too quiet, speak up”. Instead, it’s best to phrase it in a way that will make the employee engage such as “It’s better that in every meeting that you make suggestions, because you may have more to offer than you think”

• Targeted.  When providing feedback to someone, you are going to want to point out that the individual has to improve upon and not just give general advice. Targeted and efficient feedback means that you are looking at what the individual needs to be better at and help that person find the solution that can help lead to success.

• Goal oriented. The point of feedback is to help guarantee that a person is able to achieve certain goals. So lets say that you’re giving feedback for one’s presentation, you see that the presenter was not able to get the point of the topic across as well as it should have. So you point out the problems, praise the parts that were good, and offer advice that will ultimately help that person achieve the goal the next time he or she presents a topic.

Always remember that you are going to have to do assess the needs of the employee so that you can give that person the much needed help to achieve success.

Great Ways to Offer Effective Feedback

Some people might be afraid of feedback, but that could be because they’re afraid of hearing their own problems or they’ve experience managers who have made them feel uncomfortable upon receiving it. That should not be the cause as feedback is supposed to help rather than undermine.

Those who have to give feedback to their employees must learn to do it in a way that can ensure that they improve, while at the same time make them feel that their progress is being monitored carefully. So here are a few ways that can help one provide effective feedback:

• Always be prepared before handing out any kind of feedback. Being prepared means that you can make certain points about an employee while being able to back it up. So before you call an employee to your office to give them feedback on what they’ve done, be sure that you have gathered all relevant data that can help you out.

• Be specific when pointing out the problems, but don’t be mean about it. This is one problem that most supervisors and managers have. After assessing an employee’s performance and you see that the specific employee has a  numerous issues, you will need to point out each and every one of them. So go into the specifics, state what the employee did wrong and point out the reason of why the issue exists. However, always remember you have to do so in a respectful and professional manner. So do not let your own emotions get the better of you.

• Praise the employee for anything that’s done right. This is important considering that any sort of praise could motivate the employee to do better. Review what the employee has been able to do within a certain period, and point out the parts that deserve to be praised. And just like when pointing out an employee’s problems, you are going to have to be specific as to what the employee did right. Pointing out the positives will tell the employee that you don’t just notice the bad, but you know what the employee has been able to achieve.

• Allow the employee to get a word in during the feedback. There may just be some things you have missed out when going through an employee’s data. Feedback shouldn’t just be a one way conversation, rather it would be better that the employee points out anything that should be corrected during the performance review. This is because you may just be praising or scolding the employee the employee for something that he or she didn’t even do, and that won’t look good on your end.

• Follow up after you have given the feedback. Once you have appraised the employee and told that person what needs to be achieved, you are going to have to make sure that the employee actually does what is needed to reach a goal. So you are going to have keep monitoring that employee constantly, and provide follow up feedback. This will show that you truly care about the employee’s growth and to let the employee know that you are keeping track of their progress.