The Importance of Giving Employee Feedback

If you’re a manager, your key responsibility should be the management of your team.

This includes bringing out the best qualities and work skillsets from your team members. Your ability to give feedback in a way that people can process and produce plays a central role in optimizing employee performance. 

How can an employee understand what is expected from them and their work performance if it is not reviewed and communicated? The more communication, the less room for disappointment or confusion. Therefore, the better you are at this skill, the more valuable you are to your employer, and your employee is to you.  

If negative feedback is given in a clumsy, vague, or heavy-handed way, the receiver tends to take a more defensive approach and focuses more on their feelings rather than the context behind the feedback. The better you are at giving feedback, the more people want to hear what you have to say. 

Practice makes perfect, so the more feedback you give, the more comfortable you and your employees will feel. The result?  People will appreciate the respect and compassion you showed them, and in the future, they are likely to approach you in a similarly respectful manner when they have issues to discuss. They may also give you the benefit of the doubt if you ever say something that could be taken the wrong way and could respond non-defensively the next time you give them feedback or bring up a difficult issue. 

This feedback will also open a door of comfort for your employees. Your employees are more likely to feel that you notice and care about them and their work. As a manager, you should even go as far as adding in statistics when giving positive feedback to really show your employees you’re paying attention and doing your research. For example, say “you’ve exceeded our sales goal by 10%!” A handful of these employees will care about you in return and they will want to do a great job to please you. You will get more motivated, productive, and engaged workers when you give regular feedback in a skilled manner. 

Your ability to give effective feedback also boosts your credibility. When giving feedback isn’t first thoroughly thought out, it can often come across as sloppy. Once you master the art of giving effective feedback, your credibility will skyrocket!