I hear all of the time from employees that their supervisor or manager only says something to them when they do something wrong and they are usually just yelling.
The number one reason an employee leaves his job is due to his direct supervisor, and we know turnover is costly. It is not only costly to recruit for the position, but there is a financial impact to the void of being down an employee on the team and of course the cost to get a new person trained up on the job once they are hired.
So why do I hear this kind of feedback every day?
Because we do not use feedback effectively. Even constructive feedback, if delivered properly, will have an engaging affect on the employee.
And guess what?
Effective feedback that is impactful and engaging to the employee can be done at absolutely no cost!! That is right, $0.00.
Everyone needs feedback including the supervisor getting feedback from their own employees. It is an effective tool for helping others and you perform at high levels.
- It reinforces what they are doing well
- Provides guidance and support when their work falls below expectations
Effective feedback needs to be specific, timely and balanced.
- Specific: tell people what they accomplished or didn’t accomplish in precise measurable terms.
- Timely: positive feedback strongly reinforces actions and results so you don’t want to wait two weeks to give positive feedback on something. They are over it and on to other things. Developmental feedback provides suggestions soon enough for people to adjust and enhance their performance.
- Balanced: Feedback only focused on negative things can damage confidence. Feedback focused only on positive things can cause sugar coating for improvement areas or actually cause missed opportunities to improve.
I will introduce you to a feedback model you can begin using right away. It is called the STAR model (STAR/AR for developmental).
STAR:
- S/T: situation or task
- What was the specific problem, opportunity, challenge, etc.
- A: actions
- What was said or done to handle the situation/task
- R: results
- What changed, for better or worse, from the actions? What was the impact of the result?
STAR/AR (Developmental)
- S/T: situation or task
- A: actions
- R: results
- AR: alternative action – When possible seeking alternative inputs from the employee is more effective than telling them what they should have done differently.
- Something the person could have said or done differently
- AR: alternative results
- Result the alternative action should produce
Here is an example of STAR feedback.
- During the process improvement meeting today (S/T), you did a great job of keeping consistent with asking ‘why’ several times (A). This allowed everyone on the team to dig deeper and find the root cause so the right process could be put in place (R).
Here is an example of STAR/AR feedback.
- In the skills practice today on achieving higher call rates, Jerry mentioned he handles a lot of complaints from customers (S/T). You said, “That’s too bad,” and then you quickly moved on with the skill practice (A). This made Jerry think his feelings weren’t important and that his input wasn’t valued (R), If you had said something like, “I understand how difficult it is to handle so many complaints and still keep your call rates high. What kind of complaints do you hear?” (AR) Jerry would have felt you were listening and his input mattered. It would have also allowed you and the group to explore common complaints and the right way to overcome them which should allow the group to increase their call rates (AR).
The STAR feedback lets people know exactly what they did effectively or ineffectively. It provides alternatives to try next time if needed. It also focuses on the behavior and not the person which keep them from getting defensive from feeling personally attacked.
You can deliver this feedback verbally on the fly or you can actually sit down and script it out for a tough conversation preparation session. You can also use this model and actually write it down on a card or memo and present it in writing to the employee, which could be even more impactful.
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Be Great…Today!!!
Brandon Brazeel, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP