Managers give way too little feedback to their employees

In almost every organization you can think of, leaders are told to give feedback and develop their employees. In large companies, fancy software is set up to help leaders document their annual employee evaluations while new e-learning courses are required on the topic of how to give feedback.

What’s the result?

Very few leaders are giving constructive, objective feedback on a regular basis.  At most, they are completing their once a year performance reviews, with salary distinctions following the forced distributions of ratings. Maybe someone gets a $500 vs. $800 raise based on this kind of “feedback.”

Employees Don’t Know Where they Stand or How to Improve

Meanwhile, employees are deprived of the feedback they desperately want and need in order to learn, improve, and develop. And company results flounder.

Very sad are the situations in which people perform poorly and never receive any feedback about how to improve.  Eventually, some are fired with no clue about what they can or should do to hold down their next job.

When Leaders ARE Comfortable Giving More Feedback

The good news is that in high-performing work cultures–where smart people are collaborating to get great projects done speedily–leaders AND employees are far more comfortable than the norm with receiving and giving feedback.

Feedback is free-flowing in all directions—to employees, leaders, peers, other functional managers, project team members, and everyone else.  Groups who are used to doing it, do it more, and see better and better results come out of it.

A Feedback “Culture”

When a lot of leaders and a lot of employees get involved in regular, ongoing feedback, they create a feedback and learning culture. Everyone is used to feedback. Everyone gets it. Everyone gives it. And individuals know they are not being singled out.  Far from feeling intimidated, people welcome feedback–and even ask for more!