Feedback is a way of helping another person to consider changing his/her behaviour. It is communication to a person (or a group) which gives that person information about how she/he affects others. Feedback helps the individual to keep their performance on target in order to achieve certain standards and goals. It is a developmental process for the individual who wants to learn how well his/her performance matches expectations.
As a trainer you have the responsibility of assisting your trainees in their learning and one important way of assisting them is by giving them constructive feedback. This can be on:
What you see of their performance on the training event
What you observe about their behaviour with others
What they say about themselves and their performance in the workplace
Giving positive feedback is a key skill for any trainer or manager. It is not just giving criticism but an aid to learning and self-development. Without feedback how can anyone grow and change?
Giving feedback is an area covered in depth on our Train the Trainer training course.
Some criteria for useful feedback
1. It should be descriptive rather than evaluative and so reduces the need for the individual to react defensively.
2. It should be specific rather than general. To be told that one is dominating will probably not be as useful as to be told, Just now, when we were deciding the issue, you did not listen to what others said and I felt forced to accept your arguments or face attack from you.
3. It should be directed towards behaviour, which the receiver can do something about. Frustration is only increased when a person is reminded of some shortcoming over which she/he has no control.
4. It should be well timed. In general, feedback is most useful when given at the earliest opportunity depending, of course, on the person’s readiness to hear it and the support available from others.
5. Understanding should be checked to ensure clear communication. One way of doing this is to ask the receiver to try and rephrase the feedback he/she has received to see if it corresponds to what the sender had in mind.
How to give positive feedback
Give your feedback in a straight and adult way- don’t be patronising and overly critical
Be supportive and positive
Start with something the person has done well (there will always be something!) and ask them to analyse how they achieved it - this way learning takes place through success and not failure
Say specifically what you have observed and what they can improve for next time
Be prepared to accept they may not agree with you feedback is two-way!
REMEMBER! Feedback is vital in the learning process
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on April 4th, 2007 | No Comments »
This free management resource provides advice and tips useful for managers who are new to their position, and will also provide a useful recap for existing managers.
These free resources are designed to complement our range of Management and Leadership Training courses in Brighton, Sussex.
Introduction to Management Awareness
Managers who know themselves well and who are aware of their emotions are in a better position to understand and empathise when managing others.
So an important step to being an effective manager is self-awareness. This means, amongst other things, knowing:
- Your strengths
- Your areas for development
- Your positive and negative qualities
- Your prejudices
- Your feelings
- What effect you have on others
Emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence, or EI as it is known, can be helpful in this area of interpersonal understanding as it involves thinking about yourself and others.
EI is said to be categorised into five aspects:
1. SELF-AWARENESS
If you’re aware of yourself and what makes you tick, you’ll be a more effective communicator and a better manager. Once you understand yourself and are open to self-development, you are in a better position to lead and guide others.
2. MANAGING EMOTIONS
Do you always know how you feel? For many of us our feelings are unclear and hidden as we have been taught to suppress emotions. Reversing this isn’t easy, but research shows that unless we’re first aware of our emotions we can’t gain control of them. You can increase your awareness of feelings simply by spending time thinking about them. The more you practice, the more conscious you will become.
3. MOTIVATING YOURSELF
Once you’re more aware of your emotions you can put them to good use to motivate yourself and keep yourself motivated regardless of the situation. You no longer have to react in an automatic way to outside stimuli; you can choose.
4. EMPATHY
Without empathy it is difficult to gain people’s trust, create rapport, influence people and develop their abilities.
Empathy is having a sensitivity to the feelings and concerns of others and seeing things from their point of view, rather than selfishly seeing things from your own perspective.
5. HANDLING RELATIONSHIPS
Once you have empathy with someone and can recognise their feelings of stress, anger, sadness, rejection and so on, you can manage emotions in others. Handling relationships means having a degree of social competence and using social skills.
How can we use this to be more effective managers?
Having the basic building blocks of EI means it is possible to control your emotions, create and maintain successful relationships and motivate yourself and others to achieve goals, all key aspects of management!
How can I find out what effect I have on people?
Feedback should be a two-way process. Now is your chance to ask for some for yourself! This takes courage but is worth it.
The more specific the feedback the more valuable it will be – this applies equally to praise as to criticism. You can help people be specific with their feedback by being specific with your questions:
Choose two or three people you trust in your organisation. They may be your staff, peers or manager. Identify two aspects of your management style that you want to receive feedback on. Be specific about what you ask for.
- Record what each of them says
- Analyse your emotional reaction to what they said
- Make notes on what you can do and are prepared to do to change your behaviour
You need to be sure that if they are critical, you don’t get defensive. You will have to handle your feelings about the interchange if some of the comments are negative!
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on April 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »
From every manager giving good clear feedback is vital. Although it can sometimes be seen as criticism when handled carefully it can improve results and strengthen working relationships. Many employees may not even be aware that they are not performing as expected or required. Constuctive feedback can help people see their blind spots and understand the impact of their behaviour, feedback can enhance their career.
Unfortunately many managers put off giving feedback because it makes them uncomfortable, or they want to avoid confrontation. Feedback should be clear and precise and avoid hints, blame or humiliation. Managers need to know how to be assertive and ask for what they want from employees.
Once an employee knows or understands what their manager would like they may go away and think about it, change their behaviour and enhance their own career as a result. Everybody wins.
Assertiveness and confidence building training - A good one day course for managers on assertiveness.
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on September 24th, 2009 | No Comments »
