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Feedback, whether good or constructive, helps employees grow both professionally and personally. Whether it is a thank-you note, simple praise, lunch in honor, or a one-on-one, it helps employees know what they are doing right or wrong. In fact, it also helps them excel in their performance and stay engaged. As per a recent Harvard Business Review survey, 72% of respondents said their performance would improve if they received frequent feedback from managers.
In the past year and a half, we have seen drastic changes in the work environment and the way we work. Consequently, reports of disengagement, anxiety, stress, and lack of focus have also increased. A little feedback can help your employees perform a lot better. Everyone needs it, irrespective of their hierarchy in the organization.
Globally, companies have different ways of promoting employee feedback. But when they do it just for the sake of it, it is hard to adopt, and often employees find it forceful. Instead, they should make it a part of the organizational culture, which will make it easier for all the employees to adopt.
A feedback culture is one where employees are encouraged to share and receive feedback from each other, irrespective of their levels in the organization. Feedback in any form is a part of the core culture of the organization. Employees are open and honest in sharing their feedback and accept feedback from everyone. But it is easier said than done and takes time to develop and needs to be nurtured.
So, here’s how you can establish a feedback culture in your organization.
Every employee working in the organization must show a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset show affinity towards continuous learning and willingness to improve their skills. They always find room for improvement and growth to hone their skills and capabilities. For them, feedback is a way for them to understand themselves better and improve. Here’s how you can build a growth mindset in the organization:
In order to build a feedback culture, it is important to gauge and assess the culture that already exists in your organization. By assessing the culture that already exists, it becomes easier to get a better grasp of what needs to be done. It becomes easy to integrate the feedback culture with the existing culture of the organization.
Once you’ve got the culture portion figured, you need to decide what kind of feedback tools you want to utilize. There are certain factors that are important for you to consider. Like the ease of use, the implementation process, how it matches with the way work is done, and selecting the tool that best aligns with the culture of the organization.
The success of a feedback process has a lot to do with how feedback is framed. In order to maximize the power of feedback, there are three things that need to happen. First of all, feedback needs to be meaningful. Secondly, feedback should focus on people’s strengths and weaknesses. And thirdly, it should not be delayed.
Once feedback tools have been implemented and a feedback framework has been implemented, people have to be taught how to give feedback (be it with a feedback tool, or just the act of giving feedback). Besides teaching, feedback also needs to be practiced. We tend to adopt and model the behaviors that we see others using, especially those modeled by leaders. When you see people giving and receiving feedback frequently and making a habit of it, it becomes easier to do it yourself, so it’s important to deliberately practice giving feedback.
To know how the feedback tool is doing, how many people are using it, you need to come up with a set of metrics and behaviors that you would ideally like to see. You can then use this as a yardstick to measure the success of the tool and track the overall progress of the process.
The final step in the cycle is where you need to critically evaluate the entire process. Take note of what works. Take note of what does not work. You will find that there are certain processes you need to rework or reframe. When you’re able to identify what works it provides you with an opportunity to replicate the good and leverage internal champions to promote/reinforce your feedback-driven culture.
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