Meetings are a common occurrence in all companies around the world. How many times have you found yourself sitting through one; in which one of the managers just starts dictating his opinion, without listening to anybody else’s input? When it comes to an end, the employees take all their frustration out with common social talks and negative reviews near the water cooler or the café. This translates into wasted time and resources of your business. It also creates a sense of negativity between the employees, affecting the team spirit. That is why you need to promote positive feedback for a happier and productive workplace environment.
Professional opinion
Experts mention that we waste our time and resources just to avoid harsh circumstances. Silence only generates gossips, compulsive ideas and unhappy workers.
Barriers to effective feedback
Initiating and continuing the cycle of effective communication is a difficult task for every leader. Klein gives two reasons behind feedback being ineffective. The first reason is that it makes the receiver defensive; while the other reason is that most of the feedback does not have a single deduction; resulting in inability to apply it for improvements.
Effective feedback
If you want to promote an open culture in your organization, than the feedback given and received should be:
- Constructive
- Conclusive
Path to effective feedback
Given here are a few ways to ensure effective feedback:
- Create a receptive environment: In order to get honest feedback from others, it is important that you create a non-threatening environment through your behavior. According to Klein, giving good feedback is unnatural to most people. You have to think and prepare before acting.
A good quality feedback promotes specific behavior patterns and results; in combination with ideas that might result in positive changes. You should encourage them to discover a better version of themselves, rather than changing who they are.
- Action review and postmortem sessions: According to Klein, you should try to make feedback seem like a normal routine matter; with the mind frame of a daily task. Postmortems also allow you to break down and inspect every problem without laying blame or pointing fingers towards anyone. They promote collaboration and constructive environment. (You can see Etsy’s blog and Code as Craft to gain information on how to do so and the reasons behind postmortems).
- Ask for advice: Asking for advice is a better start. It is actually better for you to ask for advice before getting more actionable feedback. If you deliver the guidance beforehand, it would be far easier for you to give feedback to your boss about how a speech or meeting should be handled. According to Klein, “It’s much more constructive,”.
- Promote anonymous feedback: The best way to acquire feedback to tackle difficult situations is to allow employees to give anonymous suggestion. This technique has proven quite useful in companies where corporate culture is rigid. Klein considers it a trend breaker, as well as a way to give feedback with safety.
You can use a survey or a suggestion box; anything that hides the identity of theperson giving the feedback. You should read and discuss these opinions regularly to instill the confidence in others to share.
