An important part of telling an employee what they could do better is to tell them why. Talk about the situation, not the person. If your direct report doesn't request feedback directly, either in person or through 15Five's Request Feedback feature, be sure to ask them if, when and how they would like to receive it. Be specific about what you would like your employee to do and provide guidance on how to apply feedback.
For example, “I noticed that you fell behind on your last two deadlines. I would like to work with you on time management to ensure that you don't commit too much and that you finish each of your tasks on time. The best approach to feedback is in example 2 because it focuses on the person's behavior, while in example 1 the character of the person is criticized, which is not conducive to improvement. Encourage and train consistently For a team to respond well to feedback, it's first important that the leader has established a pattern of constant motivation and guidance.
We spoke with Mark Cannon, professor of Management at Vanderbilt Business and instructor of the Vanderbilt Executive Education leadership coaching program, who shares 5 tips for leaders to provide effective feedback to a team.
