Let's start with the fact that feedback is one of the tools for interaction between a manager and a subordinate, and it is part of the motivational system.

There are 2 types of feedback:
1) Positive
2) Negative

The purpose of the first is to evaluate the employee’s productive activities, support and approve specific actions and results of his work. But the most important thing is that positive feedback indicates that the manager notices and appreciates the participation of each employee in the common cause of the company.
The negative one is aimed at assessing ineffective activities with the aim of constructive criticism, adjustments, targeting in the right direction and avoiding mistakes in the future.

Why is feedback important for both staff and management?

With the help of feedback, you can assess the level of loyalty of employees, understand what suits them, or, on the contrary, does not triple, and why they want to leave the company. It also allows you to find out about the desire of the employee to grow and develop in the company, and about the desire to improve their qualifications.
Feedback helps change the employee's actions in the right direction, as mentioned above.
Sometimes feedback allows you to get interesting ideas from employees for the development of a department or the company as a whole.
Feedback also makes it possible to show employees the importance of their opinion, thereby motivating and encouraging them to act even better.

Important principles that should not be forgotten:

1. Individual approach
2. Feedback should be given immediately or as quickly as possible to correct the situation or upon achieving a positive result.
3. Scold in private, praise in public
4. Brevity
5. Maintain a balance of negative and positive information.

How to give feedback correctly:

The first thing to remember is that feedback is not a punitive measure, and therefore it should always be given in a friendly atmosphere in all situations.
Expression of support: let us know that you are ready to answer any questions and help. For example, “if there are any difficulties, please contact me.”
Feedback is best given in the form of dialogue. Ask open-ended questions. For example, “do you think you could do this job better?”, “what can be improved?”, or “how did you do it?”
Make comments only in a restrained form, avoiding the phrases: “This is unacceptable!”, “You are completely incapable of making decisions” or “You are not able to take on any responsibility.”
To ensure that you are completely unable to be effective, you should always prepare in advance for a conversation with an employee.
We discuss only actions, not personality. Correct feedback does not demean the dignity of a particular employee.

Detailed feedback should be given to an employee at least once every six months. It should be approached responsibly - so as not to discourage the desire to work, but to help solve problems, or even stimulate new achievements. We figured out what rules should be followed when giving feedback.

1. Think about the content of the conversation

Think in advance about what, how and in what order you want to tell the employee. If you are afraid of missing something during a conversation, make a short feedback plan.

Perhaps you're worried that you'll snap at your co-worker because they haven't been performing well lately and you've been stressed out a lot. Think about the wording in advance so as not to offend the person during feedback. After all, the purpose of feedback is not to criticize, but to show mistakes and help prevent them.

Request feedback on the employee from colleagues with whom he worked closely. Find out how they assess his professional qualities and ability to solve problems. This will allow you to better understand how a person copes with work.

2. Warn the employee about feedback in advance

Imagine: you just got ready for work, concentrated, and suddenly you are asked to go to the boss’s office. An urgent task is on, an important meeting is in an hour. The timing for feedback is, to put it mildly, not the best.

Employees regard an environment where feedback can come at any time as dangerous: it is not clear whether the day will go according to plan, or whether stress will arise out of nowhere.

Therefore, warn the person in advance that you want to give feedback. The employee will plan the day and will be less nervous. In addition, he will reflect, think about his mistakes and successes - this will be useful for the conversation. A person will accept feedback more easily, because he will be prepared for it.

3. Give feedback in person

You've probably heard about this rule: “Scold in person, praise in public.” And if everything is clear with the first part - criticism in front of the team will cause extreme stress in the employee and will only alienate him from his colleagues - then you can argue with the second. For some people, public praise can make them very nervous.

Give feedback one-on-one rather than to a group of people, even if you only intend to say good things. The point here is not only that everyone perceives public praise in their own way, but also that the employee also needs to speak out during feedback. Talking about your problems, asking for advice, asking questions in public is much more difficult than in a face-to-face conversation.

4. Don't attack

Conventionally, people have three “sections” of the brain: “reptilian”, “emotional” and “logical”. The first one has been around the longest, the last one is the youngest, and its battery runs out the fastest. It can't function all the time, and most of the time, the "reptilian" and "emotional" parts of the brain are in charge, researchers say. Everything that a person hears, sees, and feels first passes through them.

If you start criticizing an employee right away, he will perceive your speech as an attack and begin to defend himself - this will happen instinctively. Even if you make good arguments, the employee will not perceive your words the way you want: he will be stressed.
Therefore, it is important to present feedback in such a way that it is not perceived as an act of aggression. At the beginning of the conversation, tell the coworker something neutral, for example, what new has happened or will happen in the team. If you have a difficult project behind you, tell them that you can finally breathe out. This way you will create a welcoming, trusting atmosphere, and the employee will be ready to calmly and thoughtfully accept your words, including criticism.

5. Don't judge

Qualitative feedback is a listing of facts, but not your personal assessment of what happened. Just tell the employee how you see his actions on your part, how they affected you, the work of the team, and the product. Let the employee decide what to do with this information.

Be nonjudgmental: the “reptilian” part of the employee’s brain will find no reason to worry and will feel safe. Only in this state can you calmly think about the facts and understand what to work on next.

6. Be specific

Share with the person exactly what actions led to the project's success or failure. If you don't explain this, it will be difficult for him to correct mistakes or repeat a great result. So when giving feedback, whether you're criticizing or praising, be specific and take the time to clarify.

7. Show that mistakes can be corrected

Let the employee know that mistakes are normal and can be corrected. Don't say that his failures led to dire consequences. If this is so, the employee himself understands everything. Here it is important to figure out what to do next and what not to repeat.

The words “you made a lot of mistakes this quarter, because of which the project suffered” will not help you improve and grow, a person will only blame himself more intensely. And formulations like “we tried, it didn’t work out yet, but we have everything ahead of us” help to calm down and concentrate on how to correct the mistakes.

8. Ask and listen to your interlocutor

You need to talk not only to you, but also to your interlocutor - let him also give you feedback: share his experiences, reveal his point of view, ask for advice or even argue with you. Maybe you don’t know something, or your data is incomplete or incorrect. It is important to arrange a dialogue to better understand each other.

If an employee has made mistakes, do not bombard him with your guesses, but first ask what, in the person’s opinion, were the reasons for the failure. Ask questions: they will help both you and the employee himself understand the problem.

9. Find solutions to problems together

Once you understand what the problems are, do not rush to offer your solutions and do not give direct instructions. Let the person think for himself what is best to do and take responsibility. It is easier and more pleasant to carry out decisions that were not imposed.

If an employee cannot understand how to deal with a problem, help him: offer several options, tell him what you would do in his place. Don’t give advice like “pump up and be proactive”: they won’t help. Offer to perform specific actions: “learn to work with such and such a framework,” “if an idea appears, tell me about it, and, if all is well, tell the project customer.” The main thing here is not to put pressure.

Once you've made your action plan, make sure you understand each other correctly. You can even record your agreements in writing so you don’t forget about them.

I shared seven important rules that successful managers use when giving feedback to employees. In this material we will look at several models that allow you to effectively build such a conversation. For convenience, we will use examples.

"Sandwich" of feedback

The most famous model - and widely used. Simple to understand, easy to remember, easy to use.

Description: the developmental feedback block is located between two positive feedback blocks. Hence the name "sandwich". It is used in conversations about setting goals, adjusting results, and developing employees. Typically not used for disciplinary conversations, situations involving violations, failure to fulfill duties, where adjustments to the employee’s behavior are required.

Situation: Sergey, an employee of the sales department, fulfilled the plan according to two indicators (sales volume and number of active customers). However, the target for selling the new product is only 50% achieved.

Example:

Start with a positive assessment. “Sergey, it’s nice to note that this month you were included in the group of the best sellers who fulfilled the sales volume plan by 100%. I see that you had to work hard and establish relationships with many clients - you are also a leader in terms of the number of active clients.” After such words of encouragement, the employee will be ready to discuss areas of work that require improvement.


Discuss what needs improvement and change, and agree on an action plan. “At the same time, there is still room to grow. Pay attention to sales of the new brand. This month you only accomplished half of what you planned. It is now important for the company to bring this product to market. Let’s discuss what you can do to improve this indicator next month.” Notice there is no criticism. There is dialogue and constructive discussion.


End the conversation on a positive note. “Great, the plan has been agreed upon, now let’s act. I am sure that with your ability to work with clients, you can handle this task. Remember: if you increase sales of a new brand, you can enter the top three winners in the competition that is currently underway. If you need help, come in."

B.O.F.F.

Description: an abbreviation of the initial letters of the English name of the four stages of the model. Behavior (Behaviour) - Result (Outcome) - Feelings (Feelings) - Future (Future).

Situation: a new employee of the customer service department, Irina, regularly violates the standards of quality service, namely: she does not greet clients, is rude, ignores client requests, does not answer phone calls, and is late during lunch breaks.

Example:

Behavior. Tell Irina your observations about her work. Specifically, in the language of facts, preferably with details, dates of observations. Discuss the reasons. Sometimes it happens that an employee is not fully aware of what is expected of him.


Outcome. Discuss with Irina how her behavior (irritation and rudeness when working with clients, ignoring requests, long absence from work after a break) affects business results, the number of complaints from clients, and the number of Clients served.


Feelings. Talk about how you feel knowing that Irina works this way. You are upset, sad, not very happy, it’s unpleasant for you to realize. Discuss how other employees feel when Irina is away from work for a long time and they have to work with additional workload. By doing this, you will help Irina realize that her behavior is unacceptable.


Future. Discuss with Irina what she can do in the future to eliminate this behavior. It is best to ask questions and get answers from the employee. This will allow her to take responsibility for decisions and actions in the future. At the end of the conversation, agree on specific actions and deadlines - outline an action plan for the future. And it is very advisable to schedule a meeting date at which you will summarize the work on yourself that Irina will do.

Description: Standard - Observation - Result.

Situation: Andrey, an employee of the technical support center, did not respond to a request for troubleshooting from the business development department.

Example:

Standard. Remind the standards that have been set. “For the second year now, our department has had a rapid response standard - any request must be responded to within 15 minutes. This does not mean that the fault will necessarily be fixed in these 15 minutes, but our customer will receive a response that the application has been accepted and we have started working.”


Observation. State facts and observations. “On the application that you received yesterday at 10:25 from the business development department, the customer did not receive a response until the beginning of today. The problem has not been resolved: there is still no access to the system.”


Result. Discuss the impact of behavior on the business, team, clients, employee. “As a result, the business development department was forced to postpone negotiations with a major client yesterday; they were unable to obtain the information necessary for preparation. This is an important client for the company, and we have no guarantees that they will not start negotiations with competitors due to our sluggishness.”

It is logical that the next step would be for the employee to make a commitment to change his own behavior.

Description: Successes - Lessons (Learn) - Change (Changes). This feedback model fits well into team work: the work of project groups when summing up final or intermediate results, team meetings.

Situation: The project team has completed the first stage of development of the new system.

Example:

Ask each project team member to list the 2 most important personal accomplishments they achieved during the project, the 1 most important lesson they learned, and the 1 change they needed to make in the second phase of the project. Then let everyone have their say. Make lists and choose the 5 most important achievements, 2 lessons, and 1 most important change. The number of items in the list may vary depending on the situation and the size of the project team.

Of course, there are many other ways to build a conversation with an employee. This article provides an overview of the most well-known and successfully used feedback models in practice.