Find It Difficult To Give Employee Feedback? Here’s What You Need To Do

Do you often find yourself thinking “Why is giving feedback so hard?” or “How can I give better feedback?” If yes then you are in the right place. We understand that as a manager or a leader at your workplace, you have to undergo several difficult conversations with your employees.

Most of these difficult conversations are identified as conversations around an employee’s performance and work habits. Moreover, in most cases when you are engaging in conversations about work habits and performance issues other concerns may emerge. Some of these ‘other issues’ may include family crises, mental health issues, or changes in fatigue at the end of one’s career.

However, as a manager or a leader of a workplace, it is important for you to give effective feedback to your employees. Unfortunately, managers tend to delay giving needed feedback because of the anticipation that the employee will become argumentative and refuse to accept responsibility.

This is a common issue for many managers. However, there are several methods to avoid such issues such as by unlearning your previous ways of giving feedback and adopting a proper strategy.

At Mediation Services, we understand that it can be stressful for you to provide effective feedback to your employees who tend to get emotional. Hence, to help you deal with this, we have designed an in-person workshop dubbed “Effective Feedback”. This course explores some of the ways you can have difficult conversations and ways to support a culture where these conversations are expected and received well.

Also Read: How To Deal With Disrespect In The Workplace

Objectives Of This Course

One of the major focuses of this course will be to conduct conversations that maximize the likelihood that employees know and do what is expected in a way that maintains a positive and respectful relationship. During the course, we will also look into some practical examples.

After attending the training, you will be able to:

• Engage in 2 kinds of conversations that build and support positive relationships
• Have 2 types of specific conversations that result in a behaviour change while still maintaining the relationship with the employee
• Understand the consequences of not being proactive in having these conversations
• Adjust conversations when speaking to the direct blunt employee, as well as the indirect sensitive employee (adding art to the science)
• Understand the role of defensiveness and responding well to defensive energy
• Examine the interaction of ongoing feedback and performance evaluations
• Give feedback to reinforce positive behaviours
• Understand the impact of your tone and body language (metatalk)
• Describe problematic behaviour without judgement or evaluation
• Understand better their personal reactions to receiving feedback
• Develop an increased ability to screen and assess difficult situations to determine the best way to make an approach when a difficult conversation is required

Intention To Help The Employee Grow

When people do not take negative feedback or criticism well, it is usually because they do not understand the intention behind the conversation. In some cases, employees believe they are being told that they are not good enough while at other times, the feedback affects their self-esteem.

Hence, before having any difficult conversation, make sure you convey to the employee that the sole intention and purpose of the conversation are to help him/her grow and that they are a prized asset to the organisation.

The feedback is meant to increase, not drain, the employee’s motivation and resources for change.

Create A Connection

Creating a connection before giving proper feedback is absolutely essential to ensure that the employee takes the conversation well. Remember that a high-quality connection always facilitates change.

It is imperative that you promote openness. Because, if you start off feeling uncomfortable and self-protective, your employee will match that energy.

Problem-Solving Approach

We understand that giving developmental feedback that can spark growth is a challenge that many managers have to deal with. However, it becomes easy if you invite the employee into the problem-solving process.

After providing the required feedback, try finishing the conversation by asking questions such as:

• What ideas do you have?
• What are you taking away from this conversation?
• What steps will you take, by when, and how will I know?

About Us

Mediation Services in Winnipeg offers training programs to help you learn mediation and leadership skills. We conduct online zoom and asynchronous webinars for different issues. Such modules will help you to improve your communication and solve family, workplace, and personal conflicts. To check out our training courses, visit this link here or contact us for further assistance.