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 »
The manager’s role is to organise resources and employees to achieve the best results for an organisation. How a manager perceives his employees will affect his skill at motivating staff. Consider these two approaches below.
The pessimistic manager
The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:
- People do not enjoy work; they will try and avoid it if possible
- People are not ambitious
- People do not like responsibility
- People prefer to be told what to do
- Most people are not creative when solving problems
- People are only motivated by basic needs for security
- The majority of people are self-centered, and so will need to be controlled in order to work towards organisational goals and objectives
- People are resistant to change
- Most people are not intelligent.
- People are gullible
This attitude towards management and employees assumes that people at work are motivated firstly by money closely followed by basic security needs.
In order to control employees the pessimistic management may rely on coercion, threats and tight control command. The pessimistic manager could be passive and simply hope for cooperation. Neither of these solutions are productive styles of management. The first will result in hostility, employees may purposely under perform, and workers may unite in opposition to management. The second approach does not motivate at all, it may encourage apathy.
The pessamistic approach assumes that once a need is satisfied it no longer motivates hindering the need to satisfy higher-level needs. More money becomes the only form of motivation. Employees will use work to satisfy this basic need only; their higher needs (see McLelland: Motivational Drives) will have to be fulfilled elsewhere. As we will see later – employees can be most productive when their work goals align with higher level needs.
Pessimism in management that recognises only basic needs for motivation usually encourage employees to work without responsibility, enthusiasm or creativity, promoting an environment where employees dislike their work, avoid responsibility, have no interest in organisational goals, resist change, etc., thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Optimistic Manager
Maslow’s Hierarchy looks at mans basic needs for survival food, shelter etc. in a working environment money is the only currency that will satify these needs. Managers should also be interested in higher-level needs (see McLelland: Motivational Drives), needs that are continuing needs as in seldom completely satisfied, such as self esteem and self actualisation. As these needs are on going and not so easily attained, the promise of more can more easily be used to motivate and reward employees.
The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:
- Work can be fun/rewarding/enjoyable
- If employees are committed they can be self directed and creative when working towards organisational goals
- If rewards can fulfil higher needs such as self fulfilment, employees will be more committed to maintaining quality and productivity
- Enthusiasm, commitment and creativity can spread
- Most people can handle responsibility
- In the right conditions people will seek responsibility
Here there is an opportunity to align organisational goals with personal goals by using higher needs such as self fulfillment as a motivator.
There may be employees that are not as responsive when offered the promise of higher need fulfillment. There may be employees that will still need a level of control to make them productive. They may however develop as they work in an environment that encourages responsibility and creativity and control can be relaxed as employees develop.
Silicon Beach Training offer a Staff Motivation course.
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on June 3rd, 2008 | Comments Off
