Learning to give feedback to subordinates. Feedback in work with personnel

The ability to communicate with subordinates and give feedback is traditionally referred to as the main skills of a professional manager. Any leader should be able to talk to an employee at the right time. And it seems to be, what is easier - called and talked. Specifically and to the point. Praised. Criticized. Set tasks. No problem!

However, in practice, things are not so rosy. Surveys that I conducted in several dozen companies showed that feedback is most often felt by employees as a problem area in relations with the manager.

“He called me and said that I had a bonus. And handed over a letter, which said that the award for the excellent implementation of the project. The money was very helpful, but I wanted to hear words of gratitude from my boss.”

“We start every morning with a scream. The door swings open, and the chief from his office begins to arrange a "dressing" for everyone in turn. They used to worry, but now they are used to it. It does not affect the work in any way. He will take the soul, and we continue to work.”

“She is not at all interested in how my work is going. Gives assignments, mostly by email. I am doing. It feels like I’m working in another city, although her office is ten meters from my desk.”

The value of feedback

The need for feedback is natural for any person, be it a top manager or an ordinary employee. Am I doing what the company needs? Right or wrong? Are my efforts recognized? The lack of feedback, as well as a gross violation of the rules for its submission, deprives a person of guidelines in the organization and reduces his desire to work. For a manager, feedback is a tool that allows you to:

express recognition to the employee and support his high motivation;
understand the reasons for undesirable employee behavior;
correct employee behavior that deviates from standards;
direct the employee to development in a specific direction.

Seven Rules for Quality Feedback

Are you going to talk to an employee, “want it to work”? Then start with goals! Understand what result you want to get from a conversation with an employee. Then it will be much easier to properly build a conversation. Regardless of the purpose of the conversation, it is useful to observe the following rules:

Talk about a specific event. “You showed up at work at 10:45 today. This is the second time in a week, let's talk about it." There is an event, and there is a topic for discussion. And if so: “You always sleep until eleven and are constantly late”? Generalization, generalization is a favorite technique of manipulators and the eternal theme of conflicts. Not good for quality feedback.
Give feedback shortly after the event you are discussing with the employee. Road spoon to dinner. “You worked with this VIP Client today. Let's see what happened this time." Compare: “Remember, about two months ago you served a VIP client” Let's see what mistake you made there. How does it say? Who remembers the old?
Use Confirmed Specific Facts. “I noticed that you did not use the new questionnaire when working with this Client.” What does the employee hear? The manager carefully observed the work, noticed and remembered - this is important for him! And if so: “They say you completely stopped using questionnaires”? There will be no constructive conversation. There will be a game of attack and defense. And that's not what a leader needs.
Involve the employee in the discussion - let them speak.“What do you think a Customer who wanted to place an urgent order, but could not get through to us at 9:30, would do.” What can be done to prevent the recurrence of such situations? Let him say. Firstly, this is a good way to stimulate the employee's independent thinking on the topic under discussion and his responsibility for the decisions that you agree on during the discussion. Secondly, without giving the word to the employee, you can deprive yourself of important information and even get into an awkward position. I witnessed a situation where the boss scolded an employee for violating the deadlines for submitting a regular report - it turned out that he missed that two days earlier a new procedure was sent to the organization that changed not only the deadlines, but also the reporting format: the data was now entered into a centralized system. The employee began to act according to the new instructions. So there is no scolding, but it was necessary to praise.
Discuss events and activities. Not a person. Sticking a label on a person is a matter of minutes. “You are selfish! You only think about yourself!?" Say this to an employee a couple of times - and you can no longer expect help, mutual assistance and the desire for teamwork from him. After all, he is an egoist, and you elevated him to this rank by the power given to you. Someone will be offended and withdraw into himself. Someone will turn into your opponent. And someone will start to turn other members of the team against you. Personality is a delicate matter, don't mess with it! Find other words: “I appreciate your desire to use every opportunity to work with the Client. However, there must be reasonable limits. Think about what image among the Clients your actions can create for our company?”
Talk about what can be changed. This applies to those situations when you target an employee to correct behavior and develop skills. H will work: “Yes, I see that we have a problem, with such a quiet voice it is difficult to win over the Clients.” What were we thinking when we hired this employee? Uh, brother, now you have to help her! “If you sit on this side, the Clients will hear you better, let's try. By the way, can we think about a microphone?
You can praise in public, but it is better to criticize face to face. There are several reasons. Public criticism is very demotivating. Once. We have strong traditions in Russia to support the offended. So do not be surprised if, after a public reprimand, your allies will decrease in the team. Two. If you are wrong (this may be, see above in paragraph 4), you will be wrong for everyone. Do you need it? Three. Praise is another matter. And this is a whole art! “Of course, it’s good that you reassured the Client so quickly, but why didn’t you tell about the new product”? Is this praise or criticism? Not very clear. “You managed to calm the client down so quickly - share the secret of how you do it?” And this is so much better! They praised, made a compliment, raised self-esteem and motivation. Which is what was required.

Once you start using these rules, you will notice how much more productive your meetings with employees have become.

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 everywhere they bring great results - when used correctly. We usually do not recommend practicing speaking skills in front of relatives and friends at trainings. But in this matter, on the contrary, we strongly recommend that the principles of effective feedback be introduced and used in personal life as soon as possible.

The quality of feedback is perhaps the key issue of any training, and, in general, the development process. Good feedback (for short, OS) signals in time how correctly we are moving towards our goal, whether we need to correct course or change speed (and possibly even urgently turn around in the opposite direction and change the mode of transport). The OS also affects the goals themselves - they have to be adjusted, or even changed. In a word, the importance of a quality OS in our life can hardly be overestimated - unfortunately, many people could not achieve what they are capable of, due to the wrong OS from their mentors.

Take a look around - we constantly receive a powerful stream of assessments, criticism, advice, discussions and condemnations of ourselves and each of our actions. What is splashing in this stream?

Empathy?

The desire of a critic to show off his mind?

Seeking to hurt us?

Intention 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 will gouge and splinter. After all, the contexts of the process of transferring knowledge and experience can be very different. Compare: “I teach you - you are still young and stupid - you are clumsy and generally worthless” and “you are learning - you are striving to become a master - you are doing great!”. In which of the "wraps" did you receive your training more often?

Of course, useful lessons can be learned from any touch of life - if you have the strength 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 accept your advice is the creation of 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 disgruntled grimace, stand in a defiantly combative pose and depict an aggressive gesture with your hands. Well, how? I think that I really want to respond to the reflection seen in the mirror with the same aggression (and if you did a good job with a grimace, then just run away) - what kind of feedback is there!

The atmosphere of trust and friendliness creates a positive working attitude, encourages the full disclosure of creative potential, helps to accept the OS "essentially", without "bothering" over the possible "secret motives" of its author. Moreover, this is true both for working with other people and for evaluating 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 issue an OS that does not quite correspond to reality. Whether the desire to please it, the fear of upsetting - the result is sad. The speaker, who received such an OS "in roses", stops in development.

To be effective and help you grow in skill, your OS must be honest and sincere. There is no need to be silent about the shortcomings - otherwise a person will not know about them. There is no need to invent non-existent virtues - otherwise a person will not understand what he should work on next. An insincere OS is meaningless, since it does not fulfill its main task.

Speaking 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 opinions of other participants (and even trainers!) do not coincide with your opinion. This is normal, the general objective picture always consists of many personal SINCERE opinions that do not fit one under the other.

3. PRAISE FIRST! We say what we like.

In trainings, this is the most ardently supported in discussion and the most difficult principle to implement)))

It would seem that it is so easy to tell a person first of all that 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 great efforts, 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 to each other, will help to perceive information about shortcomings more constructively;

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

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

Add some of your own...

Sometimes at trainings the question arises - what to do if there is nothing to praise for? Invent something, violating the principle of sincerity? Or immediately criticize, violating the principle of friendliness?

The answer here is simple. Both I and my colleagues, having conducted a considerable number of trainings and having seen a very large number of listeners at them, agreed that there is always something to praise a person for. As unfortunate as his public speaking, his job performance, his seminar response, his attempt at cooking dinner, the list goes on.

If you can't find reasons to praise, then something is wrong with you as an expert, as a coach, as a parent, as a leader ... continue the list. So, you need to urgently work on yourself in this direction.

Regarding praise, as the basis of feedback, I will share an interesting parable:

“One young, wealthy man bought a beautiful house with a beautiful garden. And his neighbor was an envious man. To such an extent envious that every time he did some kind of disgusting thing. 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 slops. He took this bucket, poured out the slop, polished the bucket to a shine, went to his garden and filled this bucket with the ripest, most beautiful apples and went to his neighbor. The envious man, seeing that a neighbor was approaching his house, was delighted: “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 with what, he shares with it ...”
Friends, I ask you to share apples with each other in feedback!

By the way, in the feedback, the participants of our trainings said that this principle - first of all, to notice positive things and phenomena around them - gradually turning into a habit, radically changed their system of views on the world around them as a whole. And life has become much happier, kinder and richer. Try it too!

The rest of the principles will be discussed in the next issue. We will discuss

How can you criticize anyway?

How to light up your eyes

Why brevity is really the sister of talent

Who to give the first word

And other interesting things...

Faithful to you Words and Right Decisions!

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

Feedback(feedback) - information that the employee receives about how the manager perceives and evaluates his actions.

Why feedback is needed:

With its help, the leader manages the activities of his subordinates, that is, he encourages the desired behavior and limits the undesirable. Praising the employee, thereby he confirms the correctness of his actions, compliance with the plan, the ideas of the head. If it is necessary to change the actions of the subordinate, the leader gives corrective feedback. Thus, the main thing is achieved - the effectiveness of the actions of the subordinate is ensured.
Feedback performs a learning function. It allows the employee to find out what is expected of him, what are the criteria for evaluating his work, to what extent his actions correspond to the correct technology for performing work.
It performs a motivating function. The manager praises, encourages the employee and recognizes his achievements, thereby forming motivation for further work. With the help of corrective feedback, the leader forms the desire to correct the situation.
Providing detailed feedback is a manifestation of attention to the employee on the part of the manager, which has a beneficial effect on the relationship between people working together.

Thus, feedback is the most important component of such management processes as control, mentoring, motivation, and has the most powerful potential as an instrument of managerial influence. For this potential to be realized, the following conditions must be met. Feedback should be:

specific. The leader should not generalize and draw global conclusions such as: "You're always late for work", it's better to say . In feedback, it is necessary to operate with specific facts, and not general judgments.
About actions, not personality. Permissible statement "You're 15 minutes late today", but not "you are an undisciplined person". The act can be corrected, but the character is almost impossible to correct. Therefore, a person is ready to accept information about an act, but is not ready to accept that he is not such a person, and will defend himself, argue.
Timely. Feedback should be given immediately after an act that you want to encourage or change. This is also called the “hot stove rule” (if you touch it, it burns immediately, not later).
Developing. One of the tasks of feedback is to develop the employee's ability to introspection, to independently highlight their successes and shortcomings, and to correctly search for their causes. To do this, the manager uses open ones, helping the subordinate to formulate the correct conclusions about his work himself. Independently drawn conclusions are accepted and remembered much better than those said by another person.
Adapted. All people are different in terms of sensitivity to criticism, readiness for self-development. The leader needs to adapt his feedback to the level of understanding of his subordinates: do not immediately give a lot of corrective information if a person is able to understand and implement only a part.

There are several models for structuring feedback, of which the following are the most commonly used:

"The Sandwich Rule". Feedback is provided according to the structure "Positive - Corrective - Positive". Such a structure is necessary for those employees who may not be emotionally ready to accept the need to adjust their actions. So that the employee does not take a defensive position in communication with the manager, feedback begins and ends with positive moments in his activity (achievements, successes, strengths).

…In one of the companies, the supervisor had a tough, hard-hitting conversation with a sales representative about the unconvincing dynamics of the implementation of planned targets. At the end of the conversation, suddenly remembering the “sandwich rule”, the supervisor lowered his voice and said: “Well, in general, you are great, in retail outlets, customers speak well of you. Go to work". To which the sales representative, leaving, plaintively remarked: “Uncle Fyodor, your sandwich is somehow wrong ...”

Model BOFF (Behavior - Outcome - Feelings - Future), in the Russian version of PRCHB (Behavior - Result - Feelings - Future). First, the manager describes the behavior of the employee and the result to which this behavior led. Further enhances the emotional impact, mentioning the feelings that he (or the employee’s colleagues, the employee himself, other persons) experience about this. The feedback ends with a description of the desired behavior that the employee must demonstrate in the future. The model is used if the manager has doubts that the usual feedback will be effective for this employee.
SOR model (Standard - Observation - Result, Standard - Observation - Result). Designed to orient the employee to the correct technology of action. First, the manager reminds the employee of the existing actions in the company, then discusses with the employee his observations about his behavior, achieves an understanding by the employee of the results that his behavior can lead to and achieves the employee’s readiness to continue to comply.

In addition to the ability to provide feedback, you also need to learn yourself and teach your subordinates to receive it correctly. To do this, it is important to follow a few rules:

When receiving feedback, do not make excuses, avoid being defensive.
Ask questions for clarity, ask for examples of behavior, summarize the information received and get confirmation that you understood it correctly.
Thanks for the feedback.
Make an action plan on what can be improved and how.

In the field of FMCG, much attention has traditionally been paid to the observance by managers of the rules for providing and receiving feedback, which can be enshrined in, and a number of other processes. For example, one of the functions of the meeting is summing up, i.e. providing feedback to the team, which should also be carried out taking into account the rules described above. This means that during the meeting, he must operate with specific, relevant figures and facts (the rules of "specificity", "timeliness"), start with the positive and achievements of the team (the "sandwich" rule), focus on what needs to be improved today ( adaptability rule. At the same time, he should never "arrange a dressing down" for individual subordinates in the presence of others, that is, it is necessary to praise in public, but to criticize one by one.

In order for employees to understand you and want to achieve results with you, it is important to competently discuss their strengths and weaknesses with them and set goals for them. In this manual you will find techniques, recommendations and examples for giving feedback to sales managers.

Feedback Goals

help the employee recognize their strengths and weaknesses;
support actions that improve performance;
help to learn from the mistakes made.

What does good feedback mean?

evaluation parameters are transparent, understandable and known to employees;
the assessment procedure is objective, not based on personal likes / dislikes - for this, an outside specialist is often invited;
situations that have occurred recently, for example, within one reporting week, are subject to analysis;
criticism should be justified by the results of the assessment;
criticism should be constructive, that is, suggest ways to solve problems;
there should be a system of rewards for distinguished employees;
statistics should be kept by which progress can be tracked.

The service "Quality control of sales departments": who will need it, and how we do it

How to give feedback to managers

Model "Sandwich"

The error parsing block (developing feedback) is located between the positive feedback blocks. It is used in conversations on setting goals, adjusting results, developing employees:

Manager Sergey corrected the mistakes of the last week, but has not yet fulfilled the sales plan. We give Sergey feedback.

Let's start with the positive. “Sergei, this week you succeeded and corrected the mistakes that we met in your conversations for a month. Now, while talking on the phone, you address customers by name, engage in a dialogue with interest, and set the next sales step.”

We will discuss what needs to be adjusted, we will discuss the improvement plan. “At the same time, there is room to grow. Pay attention to the presentation of the product, company. Our clients apply to dozens of companies, we need to stand out among them, to interest the client with our offer. Let's discuss what you can do about it." There is no open criticism, we discuss with the employee a plan to improve his performance.

We end the conversation on a positive note. “Great, the action plan has been agreed, let's get to work. Try calling current clients using the plan we discussed. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch."

SOR model

Suitable in cases where an employee violated the company's work standards, committed a misdemeanor:

Manager Aleksey did not respond to the client's request within the set time, the client terminated the service contract.

We remind you of the standard (Standart). “Aleksey, our company has a rule - an application for a service must be processed as soon as possible, within a maximum of 30 minutes. The client must know within 30 minutes that we have accepted the application and started working.”

We state the facts and observation (Observation). “Yesterday at 10:15 a request was received from our client, but you only called back at 15:00. The customer waited a long time and tried to fix the problem himself.”

We discuss the impact on the business, the result of the employee's action (Result). “As a result, the customer decided to terminate the service contract because he did not receive assistance at the specified time.”

The next step is the employee's awareness of his act and the acceptance of obligations for the consequences of his behavior.

Boff model

The new manager, Irina, regularly violates the standards of quality service: she communicates impolitely with clients, processes applications late, forgets to call back on time, and stays late during lunch breaks.

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 the employee is not fully aware of what is expected of him.

Result (Outcome). Discuss with Irina how her behavior (irritability and rudeness in communicating with clients, ignoring applications, a long absence from the workplace after a break) affects business results, the number of clients served, and the number of complaints received from clients.

Feelings. Talk about how you feel knowing Irina works this way. You are upset, upset, not very happy, it is unpleasant for you to realize. Discuss how other managers feel when Irina is away from work for a long time and they have to handle additional calls. By doing so, you will help Irina realize the unacceptability of her behavior.

Future (Future). Discuss with Irina how she can change her behavior. It is best to ask questions and get answers from a co-worker. This will allow her to take responsibility for future decisions and actions. At the end of the conversation, agree on specific actions and deadlines, outline a plan of action for the future. It is advisable to schedule a date for the next meeting to monitor and discuss Irina's progress.

listen to the call together;
ask the operator what he generally thinks of this call;
ask the operator what he thinks he did best;
ask the operator what he thinks about the customer's experience and whether the customer will use the company's service or products again;
ask the operator what he would like to improve in this call;
now express your opinion about this call, using, for example, the “sandwich” model;
choose one narrow area to focus on using the SMART technique. Do not take the topic "customer service" - it is too extensive for one session;
play the situation again: you are the client, and the manager will try to take into account his mistakes and build communication based on the comments.

Translation - Victoria Oleshko, portal "Management of production", the material was prepared on the basis of data from http://www.iienet2.org

It is pointless to provide an assessment of those actions that the feedback recipient is not able to control. Consider the following situation. Alvin, an aspiring logistics manager, recently joined BAC Distribution. One day, a customer rang asking for shirts to be delivered for an upcoming trade show the next day. The matter is urgent as the customer forgot to call the manufacturer and supplier of BAC Distribution a week ago to apply in due course. Alvin decided to work a few hours overtime to make sure all the required models were packed and ready to ship the next day. Due to the urgency of the order, the Gildan shirts (composition 50% cotton and 50% polyester) that this customer usually ordered were out of stock. But Alvin found Gildan 100% cotton shirts in the warehouse, which, according to other customers, were just as good, if not better. This information was given to the customer at the time of delivery and no additional payment was made from him. Alvin was confident that he had made the right decision to meet the client's request under tight deadlines.

However, the client perceived the changes as a violation of normal standards, and in a meeting with his manager, Alvin heard words such as "disappointment" and "predicament". Alvin felt stung by his supervisor's comments. It seemed to him that his proactive behavior and hard work were not recognized. He wanted to know if he was up to the job and if there was a chance that his efforts would be recognized in the future.

The situation described above in which Alvin found himself is not unusual. We all care what others think of us. Unfortunately, in most cases, the assessment of behavior is given when something bad happens, not something good. One of the interviewed managers noted that, as a rule, feedback is 20% positive and 80% negative. Such statistics are surprising, especially considering that managers themselves evaluate their work well in 75-90% of cases.

The Importance of Feedback

So why is feedback so important at work?

The information is usually directly related to the recipient and can be seen as a motivating factor or a way to detect errors. Feedback is important because it gives a person an opportunity to recognize their strengths and points in the direction to maintain and improve the quality of work. However, at present, all the benefits of feedback are not fully exploited.

As stated in the article by D.R. Ilgena, K.D. Fisher and S.M. Taylor in the Journal of Applied Psychology: “The process by which an employee receives effective feedback consists of several steps: “Feedback given → Feedback received → Feedback understood and noted → Recipient wants and intends to respond → Recipient answers."

This model makes it clear that the employee must be receptive to feedback and have a desire to use the information received. Only in this way can feedback be effective. However, everyone reacts to it in their own way.

Consider the types of reactions to various types of feedback (positive, negative and no feedback) in the process of work in order to understand how this reaction is influenced by the following factors: features of the recipient and source of feedback and its structure. By analyzing these key factors, you can develop a more effective feedback system where everyone clearly understands their role, owns the goal setting tools, and continues to learn to maximize their performance.

Feedback types

positive feedback. Positive feedback encourages improvement in the quality of work. It has been shown that more often than not, people value positive feedback more than negative feedback and find it more accurate and correct because it is more enjoyable and self-esteem boosting. However, continuous positive feedback can hinder the growth of the quality of work performance, because. its recipients may be satisfied with the current state due to the fact that they always receive high marks.
negative feedback. On the other hand, negative feedback is often associated with failure. A negative assessment is often rejected simply because of the person's unwillingness to perceive unpleasant information. While recipients of a positive assessment easily accept recognition of their merits, recipients of a negative assessment, who are immune to information, easily shift the blame to other people or external factors. Negative feedback often causes unpleasant feelings that force a person to look for an excuse for poor performance. However, in some cases, the recipient may realize the need to change their behavior in order to avoid receiving negative feedback in the future. Although a person may improve his performance as a result of receiving a negative evaluation, he may not exhibit the desired behavior if he does not receive appropriate instructions.
Lack of feedback. At the same time, some experts argue that the presence of feedback in itself, whether positive or negative, can contribute to the improvement of work, while the absence of any evaluation really damages the employee's personal effectiveness. A study of 243 service industry employees published in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly T.R. Khinkin and K.A. Shraysheim showed that the lack of feedback was detrimental to both those who performed well and those who performed poorly. Imagine that some have to work overtime just to get the same recognition as others who have worked only the minimum required hours. On the other hand, a person who performs worse than the rest and receives no hints that it is necessary to change his behavior will be extremely surprised if he receives a reprimand later. In both cases, the result will be disappointment in performance and poor performance.

Since the purpose of feedback is to motivate and inform, we believe that the ratio of positive and negative information that a person receives is very important. A good balance: three positive statements followed by one negative. If performance is low but the employee is doing their best, the manager can start the discussion by recognizing the employee's efforts and willingness to do a good job, and then identify the direction for improvement. It is also important to prioritize the employee's areas of development, giving him no more than one or two areas of effort at a time, to ensure that the goals are perceived by him as feasible.

Features of recipients and sources of feedback

How feedback is received depends largely on who the recipient is. Previous research has focused as much on personal self-esteem as it has on a person's ability to set goals. Self-esteem can have a decisive influence on how a person perceives negative feedback. Employees with low self-esteem are more likely, in response to negative feedback, to think that poor performance is due to their low level of competence and that additional efforts will not lead to better results.

On the other hand, some research suggests that negative feedback can also be harmful for individuals with high self-esteem. Such people have their own expectations and perceptions of the quality of their work. Most likely, they will not accept feedback that contradicts their self-esteem, and will attempt to save their self-esteem and perception of their level of competence. As a result, a negative assessment will be perceived as incorrect, and performance indicators will not improve. So it can be concluded that such feedback, which does not look credible and is not accepted by a person, can be destructive to the quality of his work, regardless of whether he has low or high self-esteem.

However, sometimes negative feedback can be beneficial. Those who set personal goals may use this information to identify and solve problems, and may seek it themselves. In particular, S. Ashford and L. Cummings in the journal “Organizational Behavior and Human Performance” (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance) expressed the following idea: “the desire to receive feedback can improve the quality of work, contributing to the achievement of goals, helping to prioritize a variety of tasks and offering information that enables a person to evaluate their competencies. So while receiving this kind of information may initially give rise to unpleasant feelings, for those who set themselves goals, it makes it possible to realize the importance of hearing about their poor performance in order to avoid repeating these mistakes. In addition, such people seek feedback when they are not sure about the quality of their work and are looking for additional information that will help them improve. Thus, negative evaluation can be an important tool in improving the quality of work by making recipients aware of their potential weaknesses.

While the characteristics of feedback recipients are important in determining how the evaluation will be received, another important factor is the source of the feedback. Feedback is more likely to be accepted if it comes from someone who is reliable, trustworthy, and who has reached agreement with the recipient on performance metrics. For their part, managers should evaluate employees only on directly observable performance and involve other stakeholders in the organization in the process of providing 360-degree feedback.

An assessment from a reliable and trusted person looks more correct if the recipient perceives the source as an expert with the necessary competencies to correctly evaluate the results of the work. In such a case, even if there is disagreement between the recipient's self-assessment and the assessment given by the source, the recipient may see a rational grain in this information. The recipient's awareness of the need for improvement will allow him to adjust his behavior accordingly.

One way to increase the perceived reliability of a feedback source is to create a rating system based only on performance that can be directly observed. Previously, the manager was the only one evaluating the quality of the employee's work, but today 360-degree evaluation is becoming more common. This method involves receiving feedback from the entire circle of people with whom the employee contacts daily. This group may include the direct manager, senior employees, subordinates, colleagues, customers, suppliers, as well as the employee himself (through self-assessment). The manager should agree on a list of daily contacts with his subordinate to ensure that the list is complete and provides the best opportunity to assess the quality of the work. An additional advantage of the 360-degree method is the ability for the employee to evaluate others himself, which helps everyone to get involved in the feedback process.

In addition to the source of feedback, there is another important factor: it is obvious that a person responds positively to an assessment when they are in agreement in understanding good and bad indicators with the person evaluating him. Performance can be influenced by both personal factors (eg ability and/or effort) and environmental factors (eg luck and/or good fortune).

In cases where the feedback recipient believes that poor performance is due to external factors, while the source believes that they are due to internal factors, there is disagreement. Disagreement increases the likelihood that the feedback will not be taken seriously and is likely to be ignored in the next step as well. In contrast, if both (source and recipient) agreed with each other about the reasons for poor results, the recipient was more likely to trust the source and be more receptive to criticism. Therefore, it can be concluded that if the recipient believes the information provided to him is true and reliable, he is more likely to change his behavior.

Feedback structure

In his book Developing Management Skills, D.A. Wetten and K.S. Cameron offer eight rules for effective team feedback that can work at all levels of an organization.

First rule: to focus on actions that are under the control of a person, as opposed to focusing on less tangible personal qualities. For example, "You're 15 minutes late to an appointment" is more effective than "You're sloppy at your job."

Second rule: when providing feedback, rely on the results of direct observation, without making hasty conclusions and generalizations.

Third rule(follows from the previous one): Feedback should be descriptive (using facts and objective data), not evaluative (using the words “right/wrong”, “good/bad”). Details allow the recipient to focus on specific areas of work, rather than guessing what needs to be improved from the entire range of their duties.

Fourth Rule: be specific. Like details, specificity can help change future behavior. Concretization of feedback ensures clarity of the information being conveyed, allows the recipient to understand exactly what is expected of him, and helps to unify the sometimes very complex relationships between effort, behavior, and result. It has been found that feedback, especially negative feedback, can be misinterpreted. The expected behavior will not be achieved without a full understanding of the feedback from the recipient. Therefore, concretizing feedback helps communicate key areas for improvement and reduces the possibility for the recipient to misinterpret causes, actions, and results.

Fifth Rule: Feedback should be about current actions, not past behavior. Past behavior can no longer be changed, and focusing on it negates any improvements the person may have made in the past.

sixth rule: possible ways for improvement should be discussed with the recipient so that he is involved in the process of identifying changes.

Seventh Rule: The amount of information provided in one assessment step should be determined by the feedback needs of the recipient. Too much information causes overload and the person stops listening, and too little causes frustration and misinterpretation.

Eighth rule: Feedback should be given at the right time and place, face-to-face, and allow for two-way communication.

Both positive and negative feedback, provided there is some balance, can be beneficial to the business, while the lack of feedback is almost always harmful.

The organizational context is also important. Companies need to properly design and implement employee appraisal programs that involve all departments. Feedback and the involvement of all employees in it is especially important to reduce the feeling of bias (for both "favorites" and "fallen out of favor"). Knowing that all employees are being evaluated eliminates thoughts such as “Am I the only one getting comments like this? Am I punished? It also allows colleagues to think more about actions and their consequences, their directions for development and ideas on how to improve the process to make their work easier.

It will also be appropriate to consider the expectations of all parties involved in the evaluation so that they feel comfortable and accept the very idea of the evaluation. Since every part of an organization works differently, the HR department should develop guidelines and guidelines for each department. It should be clear that feedback for employees who work in environments that require active interaction with others will focus on assessing soft skills. On the other hand, groups of employees involved in production should expect to receive feedback that focuses primarily on the assessment of technical skills ( hardskills). Such differentiation can help in choosing areas to focus on.

Within departments, employees can decide how often to provide feedback. To determine the frequency of evaluation, it makes sense to take into account the work cycle time of the unit. For example, the quality control department can look at monthly figures to determine the dynamics of the development of individual employees and the company as a whole. In this case, feedback meetings can be held on a monthly basis. On the other hand, some engineering projects can last several months. In such departments, feedback may be provided quarterly or even semi-annually, depending on the ease with which the information needed for the evaluation can be collected. And always remember that feedback should help, and this process should be gentle and not become a heavy burden for those involved in it.

The roles of the superior and the subordinate in the feedback process should be clearly defined. During the first feedback session, the supervisor can take minutes for subsequent sessions to create a collaborative atmosphere in advance. The first feedback session should help ease the confusion of those who are not accustomed to evaluation or are accustomed to a different style of giving feedback, such as employees from other organizations or a different national culture. The introductory meeting also gives the manager the opportunity to assess the employee's work motivation and set or adjust goals if necessary. This gives both parties a chance to discuss and set goals for the next feedback session. The openness and honesty of the process should be emphasized. Feedback sessions can best be used as an opportunity for the development of the people involved in the process, as well as benefiting the long-term success of the company as a whole.

It is important to note that feedback should come from a trusted confidant who is open about discussing the reasons for both good and bad performance. Two-way communication helps reduce misunderstandings and gives the recipient a voice in how to achieve better future performance. Feedback should allow the recipient to analyze what should be done and what could be done differently, instead of focusing on what was done poorly. In addition, feedback should not focus only on negative manifestations (which may discourage the recipient) or only on positive manifestations (so that the recipient does not "hang in the clouds").

Instead, feedback should address both strengths and areas for improvement in order to maximize outcome. When discussing development directions, detail the feedback using examples to help the recipient understand the situation and how their behavior needs to be adjusted. As long as feedback is sincere and provides balanced information with sufficient detail, it can be an effective tool for creating a positive work environment in which everyone clearly understands their role, has tools for setting goals, and continues to learn, resulting in improved performance.