Nobody likes being told that they’re doing something wrong, but everyone likes it when they’re told they’re doing something right! This is part of human nature, but we also need feedback in order to give us direction and allow us to improve. 

Do you regularly give feedback to your employees? And, if you’re an employee, do you take feedback in the way it is intended?

The problem is that many managers don’t understand how to give feedback effectively, and many employees take feedback and constructive criticism too personally. It all adds up to a detrimental affect on morale, which eventually affects productivity and profits. 

With that in mind, learning how to give and take feedback in the right way is vital. 

How to Give Feedback Effectively 

As a manager, you need to know how to give feedback in the right way, to inspire your employees to further develop themselves and improve on areas in which they might lack the specific skills currently. 

Check out this video for some useful insight into the subject. 

As you can see, giving feedback regularly and correctly can help to engage employees and boost morale. However, feedback needs to be positive and not focused entirely on the negative. If you focus too much on the things that aren’t being done correctly, you’re making your employees feel like they can’t do anything right. On the other hand, if you address negatives with a positive slant, you will achieve results. 

This means addressing things which could be done better in a constructive manner, and offering advice on how to go about things in a different way. This also means highlighting things the employees are doing right, so they don’t feel like you’re personally attacking their work. 

Feedback should also never be given in public, unless it is feedback on a team in general. Keep these discussions away from the boardroom chairs if it’s an individual employee you’re giving feedback too. Doing this in public could embarrass your employee and cause them to become extremely disengaged, and even stressed. In this case, a private, informal meeting, perhaps at the office desk pods, is the way forward. 

How to Take Feedback in a Positive Way 

As an employee, it’s equally as important to take feedback in the way it is intended. Remember, feedback is necessary in life, otherwise we would never progress or grow! Not all feedback is intended to damage your self-esteem or to ‘tell you off’, and most is designed to show you a different way to approach a task, which could help you to complete more effectively and also teach you new skills along the way. Feedback allows you to develop yourself, and that’s the way you need to take it.

If you’re never given feedback on the work you do at your office chairs, you’ll never know if what you’re doing is wrong or right. It’s also important to remember that feedback doesn't always have to be negative, and in most cases, it can be a ‘well done’, or a virtual pat on the back! 

Be open-minded and see feedback as an opportunity to learn, rather than something to be worried about. Actively seeking feedback from time to time is also a good way to gauge how your work is going and what you could improve on, as well as giving you an idea of what your specific strengths are. This can be done via appraisals, e.g. asking for feedback on your work generally, or after a large project, when you might like to find out the things your manager feels you excelled at, and what they feel you could have done differently.

Knowledge is power, and we never stop learning, no matter how long we have been in a job. Feedback gives us that information.