Feedback meetings are one of the most awkward meetings managers & team members go through. Even after knowing that conducting this meeting without preparation may lead to disastrous outcomes, people go through it as a mechanical exercise. While it is important for the team members to know how to receive feedback, it is equally important for the managers to create a structure and follow certain rules of thumb.
We recommend building a culture of continuous feedback but not without planning. In this post we have listed down a few guidelines that must be followed in order to make the most out of your feedback meetings. You can easily take a print out of the document we’ve attached at the bottom & set the ball rolling. Intention is to make you effective at giving and seeking feedback eventually boosting not only an individual’s but also the organisational performance.
There are many ways a good feedback can be ruined if not given in the right manner.
Here is the checklist handy for you to use -> Feedback Meeting Checklist
How to conduct an effective feedback meeting:
Prior to the Feedback Meeting
Determine the purpose of this feedback
Are you catching up for a weekly/monthly/quarterly review?
Has the project/task reached its deadline and you want to review the performance?
Is the project/task not at the required stage and you want to find out the reason?
Do you have all the relevant information?
Get a thorough report of work done in the specified duration
Gather other teammates’ opinion about that particular employee’s performance
What are the team leader’s observations?
Keep an open mind
Leave aside all psychological biases that affect performance reviews
Do not consider previous performance while judging current performance
Do not be influenced by any other team mate’s opinion
Ensure a neutral environment
Irrespective of negative or positive feedback, keep it private
Make sure the employee does not feel cornered
During the Feedback Meeting
Ask for their suggestions/observations about her performance
What one thinks as slow and tedious may appear diligent and meticulous to someone else. You may be under the impression that a particular employee takes time to perform simple tasks. On the other hand she may be cross checking everything twice to make sure there are no errors. It depends on which perspective are you judging the performance.
Share your suggestions/observation about her performance
Similarly the employee may be happy with his performance. It falls on you to show them how productivity of the team depends on every member’s ability to stick to deadlines.
Focus on Performance not personal traits
Do not be overly dependent on perceptions based on first impressions. She may not have been at her best for that first time you came across her. Let her performance speak for her. You may suggest certain personality improvements later on without affecting her performance.
Do they require any training/development workshop?
Ask them if they need any training for mastering certain skills that could increase their performance. If they are not sure or are unable to comprehend its benefit, show them how they can make use of such an opportunity to climb the ladder of success.
Ask for opinion about how you can be more helpful?
They may feel intimidated by you while asking for your help. Take initiative and ask them how you can be more helpful with increasing their productivity. Give them the guidance they require or help overcome obstacles that prohibits them from reaching their full potential.
After the Feedback Meeting
Summarise your feedback
Summarise the entire feedback that you have given as well as received. Let her know that everything that has been discussed has been noted and that both parties need to take efforts to better performance.
Create an action plan
Feedback can only be useful when you create an action plan to address all issues within it. Detail out this plan to the tiniest detail so that you have complete clarity as to what needs to be done within a specific time and what is the end purpose of carrying out that particular activity.
Follow up after a brief period
At set intervals, follow up to see how they have progressed so far and if there are any deviations from the original plan of action. In case there are, you can quickly rectify the course.
Request feedback for your feedback!
It is fairly easy to give feedback as most of us do it all the time. But to understand if it is really useful, ask the feedback receiver directly whether all this did make any sense and does she at all believe this will be useful to her.
If you missed the link to our handy checklist, here you go again -> Feedback Meeting Checklist
