Start Up Great Feedback with Your Team Members. Step 2 is SIMPLIFY!

To start a feedback habit in your team, there’s no preparation necessary other than deciding it needs to happen. In the previous blog, Step 1 was getting into the right mindset.

Now that you’re of the mindset that feedback is a good practice and you are willing to jump in and lead the effort, there’s no time like the present to start feedback conversations!

De-clutter your mind of any how-tos you’ve heard before.

You’ve mentioned your plan to exchange feedback with everyone on your team, so they won’t be surprised. After getting into a positive mindset about giving feedback, now you can sweep out all of the previous worries you had about what to say and how to prepare for each person on your team. Let all those concerns go. With this approach, you will be able to walk up to any of your team members today and start a conversation easily and naturally.

Start with NOW.

Even though the performance issues you may want to talk about didn’t start yesterday, and in fact may have been present for months or even years, you want to start this feedback practice with behaviors from the recent past. Pick a recent project to talk about rather than dredging up history about what the person has been doing wrong since they joined your team.

Why not bring up old examples?

Because you weren’t willing to talk about them then, and you would be layering a burden of the past onto the other person. Your results would be slowed down by dredging all of that up now. You never told them when it was applicable, and you are only now correcting your part of the problem by recommending a better approach in the present moment. You can help them start making big improvements by starting with very recent examples they will be more keen to fix. It will feel more doable to them and to you. Believe it or not, you can work on long-term issues by starting in the present.

Narrow the conversation down by picking one or two areas to address.

What behavioral changes would make the most difference if corrected within a short time frame? Discuss those changes, making sure to give examples of what you’d like fixed and how it will make a difference to your team’s results. Clarify their understanding and help them identify the changes they can make to improve results.

Turn it around and ask them to suggest any changes you can make to improve the situation.

Ask for feedback about your performance on a recent project, and make sure you understand what they are suggesting. Listen, repeat, and commit to changing yourself.

Enjoy how easy this is and how much change you can look forward to!

Step 3, Keep it Going, will be addressed in the next blog.

Read Best Seller The Feedback Imperative for more tips and strategies for leading remotely.