Throughout my career some of my most challenging leadership moments have involved giving feedback to team members.
And I’m not talking about positive feedback. That’s easy and I love it when I have to praise someone for displaying the traits of a great team player; to congratulate someone for winning a new account; or to high-five an individual for salvaging a client that was literally about to slam the door in our face.
I’m talking about negative (ahem … constructive) feedback. I’m starting to sweat just thinking about some of the awkward situations I’ve found myself in over the years.
If the constructive feedback is performance related it makes the conversation slightly easier since you can base your feedback around results (or lack thereof). It’s factual.
But what about those situations which are not performance related? This isn’t a behavioural based interview, so I am going to ask you a few hypothetical questions.
How would you handle these situations?
- One of your team members appears to have forgotten to buy deodorant for a few days and other team members are complaining that working around him is becoming untenable;
- One of your new hires (who seemed very articulate during the interview process) now sounds like a Disney chipmunk and others are embarrassed to listen to her on the phone with potential clients;
- You notice one of your team members “downward spiralling” over the course of a few weeks. He is sniffing and wiping his nose every 30 seconds and you can only assume he has picked up a nasty new ‘extracurricular habit’;
- You’re an advocate for health and wellness. But one of your team members uses the same towel after her shower at the gym and hangs the damp towel over her desk partition every day for a month so that the office starts to smell like a high school gym locker room;
- What about if your office “toilet Nazi” sends you an email outlining in great detail the ‘poor washroom habits’ of one of your top performers demanding you ‘take action immediately’.
When it comes to giving feedback, it’s important to do this in the proper way, or you run the risk of harming your team’s dynamic.
Providing constructive feedback can be a daunting prospect for any manager – new or experienced. But you don’t need to lose sleep over giving feedback, and doing it well can actually help your working relationship with your employees and allow them to grow.
Our friends at Make it Cheaper have created this awesome Infographic on how to best deliver constructive feedback to your employees.
Author
Paul Slezak
With over two decades of experience in the recruitment and human capital industry, Paul Slezak has established himself as a transformative force in the realm of leadership and career coaching, group facilitation, and talent acquisition. His unique perspective, drawn from his early career as a leader in global recruitment firms and his entrepreneurial success with his own start-up, has enabled him to make a significant impact on leaders, teams, and organizations across the world. Paul's passion for helping others achieve success and high performance is evident in his commitment to transforming leaders and their teams at local, national, and international levels. He specializes in promoting the importance of human-centered intelligence, focusing on soft skills such as authenticity, transparency, and trust to complement business-centered acumen and drive better workplace outcomes. As an impartial facilitator, Paul brings his expertise to team offsites and strategy days, ensuring alignment on goals, values, and culture while keeping participants on task. His engaging and energetic presence, coupled with his unique "entertraining" and "edutaining" delivery style, enables him to connect with audiences both large and intimate, sharing personal and professional anecdotes that inspire and energize.
