The Winning Feedback Formula
Delivering critical feedback is an essential part of employee growth.
When done right, it can be an amazing opportunity for personal improvement and skill development, when done wrong, demotivating and futile.
Feedback delivered right will see your employees take it upon themselves to review and improve their own work, rather than absently nodding their head in agreement, only to deliver the same subpar results. Self-improvement and self direction is only possible by having challenging and candid conversations with your people.
At Modern People, we are seeing too many leaders either avoid feedback altogether, or fumble crucial feedback sessions. We see too many leaders taking work off employees, adding to their already brimming work loads and further stunting the growth of their own people.
So, how can you deliver constructive feedback to maximize potential growth outcomes and minimize potential downsides? What's the trick to delivering feedback that will help your people thrive?
Recent research undertaken by psychologists from Stanford, Yale, and Columbia, covered by Dan Moyle in The Culture Code, saw students be assigned an essay-writing assignment, after which different styles of feedback were given. Of all the feedback given, students who received one particular phrase at the end of their feedback were found to be 320% more likely to revise and rewrite their own essay.
The magic phrase was simply:
“I’m giving you these comments because I have very
high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”
While on surface this phrase is simple; it sends three very important signals to the recipient:
You belong here;
This group has high standards;
We believe you have the ability to reach these standards.
Why does this work so well?
It conveys that, whilst this person is not reaching their full potential right now, you have every belief they can do so. The employee is simultaneously instilled with feelings of belonging, autonomy, and confidence. In other words, you giving them this type of feedback makes them feel NOTICED; acknowledging their potential makes them feel AFFIRMED; and your continued faith in them makes them feel NEEDED.
When next constructing your feedback remember to:
Emphasise your employees group membership - they belong in your organisation.
Admit the difficulty of the task - you have high standards that not everyone can reach.
Ignite employees' confidence by explicitly stating that you believe they can reach your standards.
How can we help?
Modern People facilitates masterclasses in Challenging Conversations and how to Create Mattering in the workplace. Contact us to explore what this could look like in your organization.
