Many employees want more, effective feedback – but managers are terrible at providing it. So how do we reconcile this? Small, incremental improvements can happen by individuals resolving to do better, but the real impact happens when the entire culture becomes comfortable with feedback. Here’s how to do that.
Look in the mirror
Assess your own relationship with feedback
- An organization must start by acknowledging its current state
- If you don’t have a feedback culture, but want one, then say that
- While you say it, recognize openly where you’re starting from, and acknowledge that some people may have had bad experiences
Subordinate to boss
Reverse 1-on-1
- Think of this as a subordinate telling the boss what they need to thrive in their role
- Prepare a start, stop, and continue in at least one of these five categories
- Communication and feedback
- Project interaction
- Goal achievement and career progression
- Key job processes
Peer to peer
It’s really important that peers hear from each other
- Executives should model how to do this respectfully between themselves, during meetings or whenever they have an opportunity
- Then, employees should practice following suit
- By making her move, she has created a safe place for others to hear what she’s saying and say what they’re feeling
Switch up the format
Don’t let feedback be a one-way street
- Drive a feedback culture by insisting and asking for feedback at the top levels of the organization
- Ensure everyone in the company gets and gives feedback through regular, standardized cadences to avoid feedback loops that no one enjoys going down
Boss to subordinate
Managers need to feel comfortable providing both positive and negative feedback on their direct reports’ work and making suggestions for improvement
- Ideally, this is a weekly, one-on-one sit down for 45 minutes to an hour
- Make feedback on a project a regular talking point
