How to Give Effective Performance Feedback

There are nine critical components of effective performance feedback.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. IMMEDIATE. Providing immediate feedback allows people to alter their course without having to invest tremendous amounts of energy adjusting behaviors which may have been previously reinforced by the lack of feedback. Immediate feedback helps your employees focus on themselves and the path to improvement rather than being irritated with you for not telling them earlier. Immediate feedback is also more believable since it is closely tied to the situation.

2. SPECIFIC, RATHER THAN GENERAL. Behavior must be specifically pinpointed for a person to be able to alter their performance. Saying, "You are too aggressive" is not as useful as saying: "When Billy Bubba was talking you interrupted him four times and loudly stated your opinion on the subject." Specific feedback is also more sincere. Non-specific feedback is disingenuous because when people believe something to be true they can specify what they believe.

3. DESCRIPTIVE, RATHER THAN JUDGMENTAL. By avoiding judgmental statements you reduce the chance of the other person becoming defensive.

4. DIRECTED TOWARD BEHAVIOR, RATHER THAN THE PERSON. Focuses on what the person does rather than who the person is. Your feedback should never attack or demean the person you are addressing. It is the performance or behavior that is deficient, not the individual.

5. RELATED TO CONTROLLABLE PERFORMANCE. Feedback given concerning performance discrepancies that are not within the control of the individual can only produce distress and defensiveness. People can only change that which is changeable.

6. CLEAR AND ACCURATE. NEVER ASSUME!!! Always check your data to ensure accuracy and evaluate your feedback for clarity. Make sure the message sent and the message received are the same. Clear and specific feedback gets clear and specific results.

7. POSITIVE. Focus on what can be done better, not what was done wrong. Discuss the future, not the past. Indicate your confidence in the individual and their ability to change.

8. SOLICITED. Feedback that is requested is more acceptable than imposed feedback. Establish ground rules in advance before the need for any feedback so you know the best way to deliver your feedback in the future.

9. ALLOWS FOR RESPONSE. Proper feedback always allows the receiving party to respond to the feedback and generate a dialogue. Feedback is a two-way discussion. It allows for give and take. The definition of proper feedback is in the word itself. Effective feedback is when you feed a message to an individual and receive a message back from that person. Improper and ineffective feedback is when someone delivers their comments without allowing a response.

[cdog1790]

on 9/1/2009 Excellent. 5*

[highcloud]

on 8/27/2009 Great article!!! 5*

[formythreeboyz]

on 8/25/2009 Wow! Very good article. Can't wait to read more!