Feedback in the organization facilitates the work of not only the manager, but also the employees themselves. Find out what experts say about this in this article.

From the article you will learn:

Feedback in the organization: general information

Company feedback is information about an employee's past behavior that is communicated to him in the present with the hope that it will influence future behavior. It is a key component in the development of employees, and also helps not only to correct identified mistakes of subordinates before they become habits, but also reinforces the desired model of behavior. As experts note, this stimulates professional development and helps employees achieve their goals.

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The feedback process helps improve future performance because people need to understand how effective they are now. They need specific information about strengths as well as those that need development. Feedback in an organization is a tool that allows you to see yourself from the outside, plan development and track progress.

For a manager, feedback is considered a tool that allows:

• express recognition to the employee and maintain high motivation;
• change expectations, as well as the specialist’s assessment and self-esteem;
• increase work efficiency and productivity;
• clarify goals, clarify the tasks facing a person;
• understand the reasons for negative behavior in a timely manner and correct it;
• target specialists for development in a specific direction;
• develop mutual understanding and trust;
• maintain a positive atmosphere in the team and in the organization as a whole;
• develop harmony and cohesion, forming team approach to work;
• identify which process or tool does not provide the desired result;

Feedback not only helps the employee improve, but also helps the manager identify areas that require modernization, change or development in order to ensure sustainable growth and progress. Moreover, the principle of feedback directly depends on its type. The more competently the process is built, the easier it is for the manager to collect important information and eliminate all shortcomings in a timely manner.

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Positive feedback or negative: determine the type

How much negativity to give to an employee during feedback in an organization depends on how he feels about his work and how he behaves.

There are four types of attitudes and behavior: active-positive, active-negative, passive-negative and passive-positive. Each type has its own proportion of positive and negative feedback. Imagine these four types heads of departments, explain what each one is about.

Then managers will be able to determine what type of employee they are and how to give feedback. Based on this, they will understand what portion of negativity to give to the subordinate during feedback. Agree, it is impossible to speak the same way with someone who sincerely cares about the cause and with someone who is always trying to evade work under any pretext. The feedback “sandwich” in the organization will remain unchanged in any case. But only in structure: first positive, then negative, then positive again. But the sizes of the “sandwich” layers and their ratio should differ.

Active and positive attitude towards work. Minimum negativity

Myth No. 1.

After feedback, productivity will immediately increase

No, staff efficiency will not immediately increase. Firstly, because it takes time for employees to implement the activities that they outlined with the head of the department and to work on themselves. Secondly, according to statistics, 30% of employees, on the contrary, begin to work worse. This happens because managers give feedback incorrectly to the organization.

• Mistake 1: bosses do not take into account what type of attitude towards work their subordinates demonstrate. Consequently, they do not comply with the proportion of negative and positive described in the article.
• Mistake 2: the head of the department speaks in general, makes emotional judgments about the employee’s work, offends him, and does not indicate clear goals for him.

You can endlessly discuss the topic of feedback in teams, both between equal employees and between subordinates and managers. The conclusion is always the same: either there is feedback or there is not. And this can be seen from the results of the work.

What is feedback?

Communications in the company are distributed not only from top to bottom - the boss came up with the idea, said it, and the employees carried it out. Nothing like this. Any task requires two-way interaction: vertical, when a subordinate is given a task, he asks questions and receives clarification, and horizontal - with neighboring departments and colleagues. Particular attention is required to the interaction of structures during company growth and staff expansion.

Why do you need feedback?

The manager clearly and clearly sets the task and presents the result of its implementation. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the subordinate understood everything as it should. The employee completes the picture in his head based on his knowledge and ability to decipher the manager’s language.

It is important to make sure that you are understood correctly, and - most importantly! – that you see the same end goal. This can only be clarified through dialogue, receiving questions from employees and talking through points that are unclear to them.

Neglecting questions from subordinates is dangerous. By not receiving questions or ignoring them, you risk seeing results that are not the ones you wanted. Imagine that your subordinate is the head of a department. He conveyed the task to his employees as he understood it himself. His people will also understand the task to the best of their ability. As a result, the initial information is distorted beyond recognition.

It is useless to then shout at workers, accuse them of incompetence and demand telepathy from them. Unfortunately, not everyone can read the minds of leaders.

How to organize competent interaction between employees and systematize work?

Introduce a rule in the company: everyone who receives a task from the manager asks questions, clarifies the rules and procedure for performing the work. The likelihood of achieving the result you want will greatly increase.

Below, all typical tasks are described after they have been completed once or twice. A kind of instruction or regulation is drawn up with an algorithm for performing work that is understandable to everyone. This way you will save time on further explanations.

Intermediate points of task completion, especially during long-term work, are also very important. They must be recorded in the work schedule and checked. Otherwise, you are leaving everything to chance. The task has been set, time is running out, you won’t get the result soon - but what are people doing? In order not to ask yourself such questions, not to get nervous and not to create tension in the team, introduce a work schedule with intermediate results.

Result as feedback

The most important aspect of feedback is the end result. Now the manager asks questions, records and analyzes the results of the work. This will be the correct completion of the algorithm for completing the task - effective employees are encouraged and the necessary adjustments are made for the future.

Remember: lack of feedback creates chaos in companies. Managers and subordinates do not know what to think about their work, and they make up tall tales. Remember what comes to your mind when people important to you do not answer your call or request. Do you remember? Your employees imagine the same thing.

Create regulations, think about how you communicate with the team, on what issues and at what time. Do not neglect this right and rule.

Principles of Effective Feedback

Why this conversation is important and useful is its versatility. The principles that will be discussed work perfectly in all areas of our lives. And they bring excellent results everywhere – when used correctly. During trainings, we usually do not recommend practicing public speaking skills on family and friends. But in this matter, on the contrary, we strongly recommend that the principles of effective feedback be introduced and used in your personal life as soon as possible.

The quality of feedback is perhaps the key issue in any training, and, in general, in the development process. Good feedback (for short, feedback) signals in time how well we are moving towards our goal, whether we need to correct the course or change the speed (and perhaps even urgently turn around in the opposite direction and change the type of transport). The OS also affects the goals themselves - they have to be adjusted, or even changed. In a word, the importance of a high-quality OS in our lives can hardly be overestimated - unfortunately, many were unable to achieve what they were capable of due to incorrect OS from their mentors.

Look around - we constantly receive a powerful stream of assessments, criticism, advice, discussions and condemnations of ourselves and our every action. What is splashing in this stream?

Empathy?

The critic's desire to show off his intelligence?

The desire to hurt us?

Intent to put in place?

Indifferent execution of the protocol?

Alas, sometimes even a sincere desire to help resembles the strong friendly embrace of a porcupine - it both pricks and puts a splinter in it. After all, the contexts for the process of transferring knowledge and experience can be very different. Compare: “I’m teaching you - you’re still young and stupid - you’re incompetent and generally worthless” and “you’re learning - you’re striving to become a master - you’re great!” In which of the “wrappers” did you receive your training most often?

Of course, you can learn useful lessons from any touch in life - if you were strong enough to stand on your feet after this touch. And yet, from the point of view of efficiency and speed of learning, it is much better when the OS is given in compliance with certain principles.

So - competent advice, or principles of an effective OS.

1. FRIENDLY.

The most important condition for a person to take your advice is to create a friendly, trusting atmosphere. This is perhaps the fundamental difference between constructive advice and malicious criticism.

Try right now in front of the mirror to make a dissatisfied grimace, stand in a defiant fighting pose and make an aggressive gesture with your hands. So how? I think that the reflection seen in the mirror really wants to respond with the same aggression (and if you tried hard with a grimace, then just run away) - what kind of feedback is that!

An atmosphere of trust and friendliness creates a positive working mood, encourages full disclosure of creative potential, and helps to accept the OS “on its merits” without “bothering” over the possible “secret motives” of its author. Moreover, this is true both for working with other people and for assessing your own performance.

Creating such an atmosphere is sometimes difficult, but almost always necessary!

2. SINCERE.

Sometimes, imbued with the desire to achieve maximum friendliness, we begin to produce an OS that does not quite correspond to reality. Whether it is a desire to please, or a fear of upsetting - the result is sad. A speaker who receives such an OS “in roses” stops developing.

To be effective and help your skill grow, your OS must be honest and sincere. There is no need to remain silent about shortcomings - otherwise a person will never know about them. There is no need to invent non-existent advantages - otherwise a person will not understand what to work on next. A disingenuous OS is pointless because it doesn't fulfill its main purpose.

When talking about this principle at trainings, we always emphasize that it is also important not to be afraid to give your sincere feedback if you work in a group and the feedback from other participants (and even trainers!) does not coincide with your opinion. This is normal, the overall objective picture always consists of many personal SINCERE opinions that do not adjust to one another.

3. PRAISE FIRST! We say we liked it.

During trainings, this is the most passionately supported principle when discussed and the most difficult to implement)))

It would seem so easy to tell a person first of all what he is doing well, to praise him, to rejoice with him! But in real life, for some reason, everything turns out the other way around - is this our mentality, or what?

Why is it so important to start with praise?

The person made a great effort, tried - it is important to note this in order to consolidate positive motivation, to give a positive assessment of the achieved result;

This will strengthen the atmosphere of friendliness and trust in each other, and will help to perceive information about shortcomings more constructively;

A person will know about his strengths, what he can rely on in future work, this will strengthen his confidence in his abilities.

You yourself, paying attention, first of all, to strengths speaker, you will have an excellent opportunity to “take” them for yourself, learn to do the same and enrich your “arsenal” of strong techniques, useful habits and witty solutions - excellent material for your Self-Development System!

Add something of your own...

Sometimes during trainings the question arises: what to do if there is nothing to praise for? Inventing something that violates the principle of sincerity? Or immediately criticize, violating the principle of friendliness?

The answer here is simple. Both my colleagues and I, having conducted a considerable number of trainings and seen a very large number of listeners at them, agreed on the opinion that there is always something to praise a person for. No matter how unsuccessful his speech may seem, his performance at work, his answer at a seminar, his attempt to cook dinner... the list goes on.

If you cannot find reasons for praise, it means that there is something wrong with you as an expert, as a coach, as a parent, as a leader... continue the list. This means that you urgently need to work on yourself in this direction.

Regarding praise as the basis for feedback, I’ll share an interesting parable:

“One young, wealthy man bought a beautiful house with a beautiful garden. And his neighbor was an envious man. So envious that every time he did something nasty. And then one fine morning, a young, wealthy man opened the doors of his house, and on the porch he saw a bucket full of slop. He took this bucket, poured out the slop, polished the bucket until it was shiny, went to his garden and filled this bucket with the ripest, most beautiful apples and went to his neighbor. An envious man, seeing his neighbor approaching his house, rejoiced: “Finally, I got him!” and ran to open the doors of his house, hoping for a scandal. But, opening the door, he saw a neighbor who, holding out a bucket full of beautiful apples, said: “He who is rich in what, shares it...”
Friends, I ask you to share apples with each other in your feedback!

By the way, in the reviews, the participants of our trainings said that this principle - first of all, noticing positive things and phenomena around you - gradually turning into a habit, radically changed their system of views on the world around them as a whole. And life became much more joyful, kinder and richer. Try it too!

The conversation about other principles will continue in the next issue. We will discuss

How can one criticize?

How to properly light up your eyes

Why brevity is actually the sister of talent

Who should have the first word?

And other interesting things...

Faithful Words and True Decisions to You!

Vyacheslav Salomasov
Psychologist, coach, business trainer.
Director and leading trainer of the school of public speaking "True Word"
https://vernoeslovo.com/

I shared seven important rules that successful managers use when giving feedback to employees. In this material we will look at several models that allow you to effectively build such a conversation. For convenience, we will use examples.

"Sandwich" of feedback

The most famous model - and widely used. Simple to understand, easy to remember, easy to use.

Description: the developmental feedback block is located between two positive feedback blocks. Hence the name "sandwich". It is used in conversations about setting goals, adjusting results, and developing employees. Typically not used for disciplinary conversations, situations involving violations, failure to fulfill duties, where adjustments to the employee’s behavior are required.

Situation: Sergey, an employee of the sales department, fulfilled the plan according to two indicators (sales volume and number of active customers). However, the target for selling the new product is only 50% achieved.

Example:

Start with a positive assessment. “Sergey, it’s nice to note that this month you were included in the group of the best sellers who fulfilled the sales volume plan by 100%. I see that you had to work hard and establish relationships with many clients - you are also a leader in terms of the number of active clients.” After such words of encouragement, the employee will be ready to discuss areas of work that require improvement.


Discuss what needs improvement and change, and agree on an action plan. “At the same time, there is still room to grow. Pay attention to sales of the new brand. This month you only completed half of what you planned. It is now important for the company to bring this product to market. Let's discuss what you can do to next month improve this indicator." Note that there is no criticism. There is dialogue and constructive discussion.


End the conversation on a positive note. “Great, the plan has been agreed upon, now let’s act. I am sure that with your ability to work with clients, you can handle this task. Remember: if you increase sales of a new brand, you can enter the top three winners in the competition that is currently underway. If you need help, come in."

B.O.F.F.

Description: an abbreviation of the initial letters of the English name of the four stages of the model. Behavior (Behaviour) - Result (Outcome) - Feelings (Feelings) - Future (Future).

Situation: a new employee of the customer service department, Irina, regularly violates the standards of quality service, namely: she does not greet clients, is rude, ignores client requests, does not answer phone calls, and is late during lunch breaks.

Example:

Behavior. Tell Irina your observations about her work. Specifically, in the language of facts, preferably with details, dates of observations. Discuss the reasons. Sometimes it happens that an employee is not fully aware of what is expected of him.


Outcome. Discuss with Irina how her behavior (irritation and rudeness when working with clients, ignoring requests, long absence from work after a break) affects business results, the number of complaints from clients, and the number of Clients served.


Feelings. Talk about how you feel knowing that Irina works this way. You are upset, sad, not very happy, it’s unpleasant for you to realize. Discuss how other employees feel when Irina is away from work for a long time and they have to work with additional workload. By doing this, you will help Irina realize that her behavior is unacceptable.


Future. Discuss with Irina what she can do in the future to eliminate this behavior. It is best to ask questions and get answers from the employee. This will allow her to take responsibility for decisions and actions in the future. At the end of the conversation, agree on specific actions and deadlines - outline an action plan for the future. And it is very advisable to schedule a meeting date at which you will summarize the work on yourself that Irina will do.

Description: Standard - Observation - Result.

Situation: Andrey, an employee of the technical support center, did not respond to a request for troubleshooting from the business development department.

Example:

Standard. Remind the standards that have been set. “For the second year now, our department has had a rapid response standard - any request must be answered within 15 minutes. This does not mean that the fault will necessarily be fixed in these 15 minutes, but our customer will receive a response that the application has been accepted and we have started working.”


Observation. State facts and observations. “On the application that you received yesterday at 10:25 from the business development department, the customer did not receive a response until the beginning of today. The problem has not been resolved: there is still no access to the system.”


Result. Discuss the impact of behavior on the business, team, clients, employee. “As a result, the business development department was forced to postpone negotiations with a major client yesterday; they were unable to obtain the information necessary for preparation. This is an important client for the company, and we have no guarantees that they will not start negotiations with competitors due to our sluggishness.”

It is logical that the next step would be for the employee to make a commitment to change his own behavior.

Description: Successes - Lessons (Learn) - Change (Changes). This feedback model fits well into team work: the work of project groups when summing up final or intermediate results, team meetings.

Situation: The project team has completed the first stage of development of the new system.

Example:

Ask each project team member to list the 2 most important personal accomplishments they achieved during the project, the 1 most important lesson they learned, and the 1 change they needed to make in the second phase of the project. Then let everyone have their say. Make lists and choose the 5 most important achievements, 2 lessons and 1 most important change. The number of items in the list may vary depending on the situation and the size of the project team.

Of course, there are many other ways to build a conversation with an employee. This article provides an overview of the most well-known and successfully used feedback models in practice.

Vladimir Belyaev
Based on materials"B-training"

• Leadership, Management, Company Management