How to effectively provide negative feedback to your

employees? Part 1
by Bhavin Gandhi

First of all, I would like to thank my readers for really liking my last
blog series about 'honest feedbacks'. I really appreciate your
feedback, so please keep it coming. Secondly, many of you have
asked me how to provide honest, but negative feedback, to your
employees, and hence, I am writing this two-part series blog for
answering some of your questions.
Refrain from personal attacks: While giving feedback to others, try to direct your
feedback towards their behavior rather than towards that particular person. A common
mistake lot of managers make is to criticize the person rather than their negative behavior.
If you tell your assistant that she is a poor excuse for a secretary, then it is a personal
attack rather than a constructive criticism. These kind of feedback can only make your
employees more defensive towards you and your feedback. So, try to identify the
problematic behavior and focus on what can be done to correct it in the future, instead of
launching personal attacks towards your employees. For example: This is what you tell
your secretary when she makes an accounting mistake "Jackie, an accounting mistake
like this one can cost way more than our weekly office budget. From now on, please check
with me before finalizing any orders costing more than $100".
Be descriptive: While providing feedback to your employees, don't be evaluative or
judgmental, instead be descriptive. Descriptive feedback is tactfully honest and objective,
whereas evaluative feedback seems to be more judgmental and accusatory to the
feedback receiver. Here is an example of an evaluative feedback: Where is your sales
report? You know it is due on my desk no later than 9:00 each morning. Youre obviously
not reliable anymore. Here is an example of a descriptive feedback for the same
situation: When you dont turn your sales reports in on time, Im unable to complete the
departmental report on time. This makes both of us look bad. Youve been late twice this
month. Is there something I can do to help you get those reports in on time? Like in this
example, descriptive words are more likely to result in cooperation.
Keep it short: If you are providing constructive criticism to your employee, don't have a
marathon about it. Try to include only as much information as the person can handle at
one time. Suppose during a performance appraisal, you give an employee a list of 20
items that need improvement. Even though you might feel better after fully expressing
your feelings, your employee will only remember 2-3 major bullet items from that meeting
and forget everything else. How can anyone improve on 20 things at the same time?

Author: Bhavin Gandhi

Contact information: http://BhavinGandhi.com

Think about it, can you do that? What would have happened if your manager gave you
similar feedback? Wouldn't you require more time to analyze this much information at
once? Thus, you should restrict yourself while giving negative feedback to your
employees. Give only two or three suggestions that your employee can reasonably handle
at a time.
These are some ideas through which you can effectively provide negative feedback to
your employees. If you have any other ideas through which we can make this process
easier, then please share your ideas with me through your comments here. Thanks Bhavin Gandhi
Bhavin Gandhi | May 26, 2015 at 8:30 AM | Tags: 21st century, Become the best
manager,Confront your employees, Effective communication, Leadership, Management, Negative
Feedback,Performance Review | Categories: 21st Century, Leadership, Management |
URL:http://wp.me/p103Cm-dV

Author: Bhavin Gandhi

Contact information: http://BhavinGandhi.com