Fear surrounds the idea of performance feedback: leaders are scared about how the receiver will react and employees are afraid of what their bosses will say about them and what impact this will have on their job.
Two of our innate fears-rejection and the unknown- cause many leaders to perform irregular, poorly-handled reviews, and many employees to limit their business growth. People avoid the truth, which leads to procrastination, denial, brooding, jealousy, and self-sabotage.
When it comes to feedback in our organizations today, both leaders and employees dislike the process. But, changes.
You, as a leader, can help those you lead to become better through effective feedback. And, while fear may not be able to completely gotten rid of because it is part of human nature, it can be greatly reduced in the workplace.
Don't let your culture be one filled with fear-because fear will hold everyone back and act as a barrier to your business success.
What does effective performance feedback look like?
Some companies have learned lessons about their employee review processes by applying research findings about human motivation. When employees aren't living in fear, they can do their jobs better.
Effective performance feedback will look differently for every company but here are two newer ideas that can help your workplace cut down on fear.
Get rid of performance reviews. Samuel Culbert is the author of "Get Rid of The Performance Review", and he believes performance reviews are "the most ridiculous practice in the world." He believes there is another way, that performance previews that focus on the future instead of the past are a more effective option.
Crowd source your performance feedback. Some companies are getting their employees more involved in the process of reviewing their peers. On the Harvard Business Review blog, Eric Mosley writes that, "A group of independently deciding individuals is more likely to make better decisions and more accurate observations than those of an individual."
As a leader, these these five things can reduce fear about employee feedback.
Here is an easy model for giving effective feedback that I train executives to use:
Step 3 is a coaching technique that I encourage all leaders to become proficient at. If you incorporate good questioning techniques with your employee interactions you can increase your productivity as they learn to solve their own problems.
How will you incorporate one of the above suggestions into the way you handle employee feedback?