How To Break Down Barriers To Give More Feedback

At Work

blog.impraise.com /how-to-break-down-barriers-to-give-more-feedback-at-work/

You are motivated to give more feedback to help your colleagues grow, but you

often find yourself not doing it. There seem to be invisible barriers that stop you

from sharing your opinions. You might be aware of the reasons but not quite

sure what the solution is.

If this sounds like the case to you, you have come to the right place. In this blog

post, I will investigate the common feedback stoppers. Then there will be tips

to break down barriers and start giving more feedback.

Feedback Stoppers: What are they?

There are external and internal factors that affect your feedback giving

behavior. The former lies in your environment: the company where you work

and the group you belong to. The latter comes from within yourself, namely your

personality traits and your skills.

The lack of a feedback culture

Let me draw up a few scenarios for you. Your direct manager does not give

feedback to you. The top managers never officially encourage sharing feedback

in your company. Your colleagues hardly ask what you think about their work.

Same goes with your direct reports.

If one or more of those apply to you, it is likely that your workplace lacks a

strong feedback culture. Even though you feel like giving feedback, you are not

sure that it is an acceptable and welcomed behavior. Your managers don’t give

and support feedback. Your colleagues don’t ask you for feedback. Why should

you go out there and be the odd one out?

In the deeper level, it comes to your identity. Not acting in conformity with the

rest of your group risks exclusion or loss of connection. “Identity is very closely

tied up to the groups we belong to”, claimed Neal Ashkanasy, a professor of

management at the University of Queensland. You tend to avoid an act that

might threaten your membership in your group. Therefore, you don’t want to

give feedback.

Here is the tip for you: Do it anyway. Give feedback to your colleagues and be

a role model. There will be no road until someone takes the first step. Why can’t

it be you?

If your feedback is helpful, your colleagues will appreciate it. The if is the

game-changer here. When you want to be a role model, it is crucial to do things

right. In the latter half of this article, you can find a lot more information that

helps improve your feedback giving skills.

Besides, you should communicate more with your colleagues to build a strong

relationship based on trust and respect. Speak openly and transparently about

work related matters. It also helps to do small talks about personal matters now

and then. Ask questions to get to know your colleagues personally.

When two communicate regularly, feedback is less likely to come across as

intrusion. The risk of connection loss is reduced, and your group membership

remains intact.

Last but not least, you can call for changes. Bring up your need to receive

feedback with your team manager and HR Manager.

You don’t need to make a grand scheme. Simply lay out the benefits of sharing

feedback. Timely compliments boost team’s morale. Besides, corrective

feedback addresses behaviors that have negative impact on the team. It calls

for awareness and improvement.

Think of initiating a small survey inside and outside your team so you can

gather people’s opinion whether they would like to receive more and better

feedback. Show the results to your manager or a trusted colleague in HR.

How your personality traits stop you from giving feedback

Your personal self stops you from giving feedback in a less obvious way. It is

also more difficult to change those inner factors. However, with a good

understanding of your own self, you can track down its impact on your

willingness to give feedback. You then know which areas to make changes on.

Moreover, I have some tips to help you along the way.

Regarding personality traits, I use Introvert vs. Extrovert and Thinking vs.

Feeling as differentiating categories. They are used in the well-known Myer-

Briggs Type Indicator tool for personal development. The core idea is that each

category (e.g. introvert or extrovert) is represented by a group of certain

personality traits. The categories give you a rounded picture of your behaviors

and how you react to the world.

I list underneath the most common traits of each category. Pick the group you

feel most familiar with and read on for the tips.

Favourite World: Introverts vs. Extroverts

Which one is your favourite world: the outer world or the inner world? An

extrovert prefers to focus on the outer world with big groups of friends and

colleagues. On the contrary, an introvert has a strong tendency to stay in a

much small circle, or most of the time, just on her own. Here are more details

about introverts and extroverts.

1. Extroverts

You are more an extrovert if the following traits apply to you.

You gain energy from active involvement in events and a lot of different

activities.

You are excited when you are around people.

You are comfortable working in groups and prefer working in group.

You like moving into action swiftly, and make things happen. You tend to

not stop to make a plan first.

Extroverts often spring into action, which leads to spontaneous and intuitive

feedback. However, you tend to be inconsistent when it comes to regular

feedback. The inconsistency stands in the way of building a good habit and a

strong culture of continuous feedback.

So, what can you do? Here are things I recommend:

Firstly, change the mindset. Actively remind yourself that your colleagues can

benefit more from regular feedback, compared with feedback once in a while

when you feel like.

Secondly, set up a system to implement regular feedback. Initiate recurring

one-on-ones. Mark them in your calendar. Make a plan for sharing feedback.

Your innate tendency might pull you toward doing feedback spontaneously, but

try to push through it.

2. Introverts

You are more an introvert if you find the following characters familiar:

You feel drained being around a lot of people for a long period of time.

You are comfortable doing things on your own or with the few people you

feel comfortable with.

You take time to reflect idea, and have a tendency to not move into

actions quickly enough.

Introverts find frequent face-to-face feedback sessions exhausting. You tend to

avoid feedback conversations when you are low in energy.

One solution could be to use Impraise to send written feedback via an app

instead. Written communication is often the preferred choice of introverts.

Another solution is to avoid arranging feedback sessions too close to each

other. Take a break to recharge properly before you get back to it.

Beside, introverts have a tendency to procrastinate. That makes you miss the

right time to give impactful feedback. Here are a few tips for procrastination:

Write “giving feedback” in your to-do list. Schedule a time for it if

possible.

Break the task down into smaller steps. When you want to tell a

colleague about a behavior of her, do that in steps. Firstly, arrange a time

to talk with her. Note that down in your calendar. Secondly, plan what

specifically you would say. There is a simple formula for feedback to help

you later on. Thirdly, show up at the arranged time and do it.

When you want to give feedback to a few people, do it one by one.

Multitasking is not for procrastinators.

Decision-Making: Thinkers vs. Feelers

This refers to how you make decisions. Do you prioritise logical sides of all

matters or do you always take people and circumstances into consideration?

Do you prioritise logical sides of all matters or do you always take people and

circumstances into consideration? If you pick the first option, you have the

tendency of a thinker. If you say yes to the second one, you are more a feeler.

1. Thinkers

Here are some personality traits of thinkers:

You make decisions based on logic and the basic truth.

You tend to analyse pros and cons, which you weigh against each other

so you can make the best decisions.

Sometimes you are considered as task-oriented, uncaring or indifferent

to people and specific situations.

You focus mostly on continuous improvement and getting the best

results.

Because you tend to see room to improve all the time, you overlook

achievements. Thinkers tend to not give compliments often enough or not at all.

Your logic is that people should know when they do well. There is no need for

you to point that out for them.

You need to change that mindset. People might know that they have done

well, but it is always encouraging to hear others talking about it. Make it your

habit to give a compliment to a well-done job. Of course, it is much easier said

than done when it comes to change behavior. By being aware of the problem,

you are more than halfway to solve it though.

Besides, when thinkers give feedback, you tend to focus on correction and

criticism. Your focus on the facts can cause you to disregard personal feeling.

That can badly affect your relationship with your colleagues. Learn to give

feedback the most constructive way. You will find some tips for that later on.

2. Feelers

Here are some personality traits of feelers:

You believe that you make the best decisions by weighing what people

care about and the points-of-view of persons involved in a situation.

You want to establish or maintain harmony in relationship, and you tend

to do whatever it takes to do so.

You find it hard to communicate the “hard truth” of situations. Sometimes

you are perceived as indirect.

Feelers don’t want to give corrective feedback because you worries that it

would badly affect your relationship with feedback recipients. It goes against

your principles.

However, according to research conducted by the Harvard Business Review,

your colleagues actually want to hear the negative feedback you don’t want to

give. So maybe it’s the time to change your mindset and start giving the

corrective feedback anyway.

Besides, you can learn the skills to give critical feedback that does not cause

damages to the harmony of the relationship. You will find more tips on this in

the coming part of this article.

The lack of confidence in your feedback giving skills

Many say that they would like to give feedback but they don’t know how to do it

right. They are not confident in their feedback giving skills. They worry their

corrective feedback will cause friction in the team or just become another matter

left unsolved.

At Impraise, we find three most common concerns when it comes to giving

feedback, as follows:

1. How do you give corrective feedback that people are most likely to

accept and least likely to get upset?

2. How to give a praise that works best?

3. What exactly should you include in your feedback?

Here is the golden rule: When giving feedback, separate praise and criticism.

Don’t use the feedback sandwich. Keep your messages clear and separate to

get the best out of each.

Mixing praise and criticism risks sounding insincere. Moreover, it is likely that

parts of the message would go missing. In an experiment run by behavioral

science professor Ayelet Fishbach of University of Chicago, most people only

remember favourable comments regardless given both at the same time. So

your colleagues are likely to miss out the information that can help them

improve if you use the feedback sandwich.

Therefore, it only makes sense for me to give you separate tips for praising

and giving corrective feedback. Then I will also offer a formula for feedback

that can make an impact.

How to give corrective feedback

First of all are some tips for corrective feedback since most people find it

challenging to deliver criticism.

Adopt a mindset starting from WHY. Ask yourself why you want to give

the feedback. Never use feedback to vent your frustration on your

colleagues. Only keep reading if you want to help your colleagues grow.

Choose the right time: Sooner is better than later, unless strong emotion

is involved.

Choose the right space: Do it in private, pick a place where both can

relax and feel comfortable.

Nurture the right behaviors, namely: be specific in your feedback, offer

suggestions for improvement, listen actively and follow up.

How to give praise

Giving praise is not as challenging but there are some tips for you to get the

most out of praise:

Give early praise

You should give compliments when others are doing the tasks, not just after

they accomplish them. The reason for it is that early praise will help boost

one’s confidence significantly.

Early praise can also serve as the signal for “you are going the right direction”.

Such signal is important to keep everyone on track in long-term projects.

Besides, after receiving praise, task performers is likely to become more

perceptive for future suggestions. However, when you give early praise,

remember to stress what still needs to be done. Keep your colleagues focused

on the final goal.

Tailor your compliments

You should tailor compliments according to personality and experience of the

recipients.

An introvert would prefer receiving praise in front of a group of her closest

colleagues rather than the whole company of 500 almost strangers.

Moreover, a junior is more in need of early praise as a guide toward the right

direction. A senior would like to see praise as appreciation of her continuous

efforts. She wouldn’t need that much acknowledgement. She is experienced

enough to spot good work.

How to formulate feedback so it will make an impact

You want your feedback to make an impact, right? Here is formula for you:

Feedback = Situation + Behaviour + Impact + Next

In brief,

Feedback stoppers come from both outside and inside your own self. Gain the

best understanding of the reasons so you can learn to adapt, change and

master the skills of GIVING feedback.