Self-feedback is a highly beneficial tool in the workplace. It is a form of personal feedback that managers and employees can provide to themselves. Managers can evaluate themselves and use employee feedback to create a well-rounded work environment.
The self-assessment motive suggests that people seek out tasks that lead to feedback, even if the feedback is negative.
There are several types of feedback, each having its purpose and benefits. Providing feedback during the quarter encourages accountability and ensures that employees stay on the right track.
Also read: 10 Best Employee Feedback Tools To Track Performance
Summative goal setting is beneficial because it usually provides a metric or grade and encourages improvement. Abstract and measurable feedback are both important aspects of a well-rounded workplace.
Self-feedback can improve office dynamics and communication between managers and their employees. It can lead to increased productivity and more effective goal-setting. Self-evaluation is a driver in realistic goals—we cannot set attainable goals without first addressing our strong points and areas we need to work on.
Feedback can be a useful benchmark to keep track of performance improvement. Even if there are no metrics to prove it, an increase in positive feedback or expressed improvement can help track employee growth.
It also encourages employees to be honest with themselves about their strengths and their weaknesses through employee feedback. You know yourself best. It is sometimes difficult to obtain an accurate read on your performance with external feedback alone.
Others may sometimes provide feedback that is inaccurate or too lenient. We cannot depend on the feedback of others alone.
Self-feedback can also increase self-awareness and encourage team-building. It is a beneficial trait as it improves communication and leadership skills. A healthy communicative environment correlates with higher sales and customer retention.
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Employees’ self-review may suggest that they are a part of a department that hinders their productivity. Managers can use this employee feedback to find a solution and, in turn, increase productivity and employee satisfaction.
Understanding Self-Feedback
The self-assessment motive suggests that people want to find an accurate view of themselves. They seek tasks that result in feedback. This motive is especially relevant for adjustable traits. It does not matter if the feedback is negative or positive—people still naturally seek it.
Feedback is information about how a product or person performs, often used as a basis for improvement. There are several types of feedback that you can give verbally or in metrics.
You telling your employee that you are noticing an improvement in their teamwork is an example of verbal feedback. Compiling a report of their sales numbers from the previous years is also feedback. Sometimes, it can be in the form of asynchronous comments and suggestions.
Effective leaders provide several types of feedback for employees and themselves throughout the quarter. Formative feedback is ongoing and measures performance during the quarter. Summative feedback is provided after the fact and usually has metrics attached to it.
How It Can Help in the Workplace
Self-feedback can result in an overall more productive and positive work environment. When managers conduct self-feedback, it ensures that they are working to be effective leaders.
They can also evaluate employees’ self-feedback to determine what changes they can make to improve productivity and employee satisfaction.
It encourages accountability and can help all participants improve their self-awareness. The best leaders are self-aware and can evaluate themselves as well as they can their subordinates.
It can lead to professional development for both the individual and the company.
Also read: Do These 8 Things To Improve Employee Engagement
How to Self-Evaluate
Evaluating yourself is an important and relatively simple task. To perform a strong self-evaluation, you should first determine how you will use this feedback. Are you turning this report in for performance reviews? Are you trying to set personal goals to be a better leader?
Then, write out your accomplishments, strengths, and weaknesses. It is helpful if you have analytics to back this up. For example, if you accomplished a certain amount of sales or received positive feedback from your employees, it is helpful to record those notes for your self-feedback.
It is important to be honest with yourself during self-evaluation—you cannot set realistic goals if you are not aware of your strengths and weaknesses. You should also determine the strengths and weaknesses of your employees.
You should then set measurable, realistic goals. Attainable goals are goals that are within reach. You should always challenge yourself, but unrealistic goals can discourage you and hinder your productivity.
You should also be asking yourself if what you are currently doing is productive toward accomplishing your goals or if you need to make changes. Realistic goals are important for productivity.
To set a realistic goal, design them to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Don’t forget to align your feedback with your team’s goals.
Example of Self-Feedback
An example of effective self-feedback could be, “Last year, I scheduled three check-ins with all of my employees. These meetings resulted in an 8% increase in sales.”
Benefits of Self-Feedback
Self-feedback is a useful tool in the workplace for employees and superiors alike.
1. Helps Improve the Goal-Setting Process
Self-feedback solidifies goal-setting plans along with feedback from others. Evaluating yourself helps you set realistic goals and forces you to ask yourself if your current course of action is truly productive in reaching your goals.
It Encourages You to Reflect With Honesty and Leads to Self-Improvement. Being honest with yourself about your weaknesses makes it easier for you to frame them as opportunities to improve.
The Practice of Self-Feedback Can Enhance Self-Awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to understand your behavior and how it may impact others. Self-aware managers are proven to make better employers and leaders.
They are more likely to communicate effectively and make sound decisions.
Self-feedback increases self-awareness by forcing you to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance.
According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, there are two types of self-awareness: internal self-awareness and external self-awareness.
Internal self-awareness is how accurately we can view ourselves—it is how we comprehend our values, behaviors, strengths, weaknesses, and how we affect others. External self-awareness involves understanding how others view us.
Also read: 7 Reasons Why Goal Setting Is Important
2. Improves Team-Building and Boosts Performance
Employee feedback helps managers ensure that each individual feels that they are working in a safe and productive environment.
The best leaders and employees are self-aware—self-aware individuals are often strong communicators. An increase in positive communication between managers and employees leads to a healthier work environment and, in turn, improved employee performance.
A reliable team leads to customer retention and satisfaction.
3. Helps Managers Keep Track of Their Accomplishments.
Formative self-feedback is useful for tracking your progress throughout the quarter, whether it is abstract like an attitude improvement or concrete, like an increase in retention or sales.
An example of formative self-feedback is: “I feel like I am improving my communication skills by setting up weekly one-on-one meetings with my employees.”
Summative self-feedback is a great tool to use as a summary of accomplishments and places for improvement. It often includes metrics like the number of sales, percentage increases, turnover rates, retention rates, and more.
An example of summative self-feedback is: “This year, I helped increase customer retention by 23%.”
Employee Feedback and Its Importance
When employees conduct self-feedback, it allows them to provide honest insights to managers about their team dynamic. Team-building is important and is impossible without the tools to do so.
Employee feedback is a crucial aspect of building a strong team. It also encourages employee accountability.
Finding out how employees view themselves as part of the team can help managers evaluate the team as a whole.
However, self-feedback from employees alone is not nearly as productive as when combined with constructive employer feedback.
The theory of self-assessment motive is especially relevant with employees trying to climb the ranks in their organization. They seek out approval from their fellow employees and higher-ups.
How Managers Can Use This Feedback
Using employee feedback can assist managers with filling in information gaps in their organization. It allows them to use their employee’s insight to determine several workplace elements, including assigning tasks and determining realistic timelines.
If there is inappropriate behavior or an unproductive team, self-feedback can help guide managers in the right direction and improve the company’s workflow.
For example, if an employee’s feedback suggests that they do not feel comfortable or productive in their team, a manager can use this information to place the employee in a team that they will be able to perform best in.
The process of receiving and dissecting employee feedback can improve the communication skills of both employees and managers.
Whether it is for performance evaluations or a casual check-in, employee feedback is a crucial tool for managers to use to build a strong team.
Also read: Performance Reviews: A Manager’s Guide
Wrapping It Up: Self-Feedback Takeaways
Self-feedback is a useful tool for managers to ensure accountability and productivity. The combination of self-feedback and employee feedback is the recipe for success in a workplace. Self-feedback can also enhance self-awareness.
When managers and employees evaluate how their actions affect others, they are more mindful of their actions and the results that they have.
Check out this article from Forbes to learn more about formative feedback and communicating with purpose.
Effectively communicating feedback, both good and bad, is a crucial leadership skill to have.