Feedback has long been considered one of the most powerful motivational tools, helping to push recipients towards achieving more and improving performance in the workplace.
“Opening our minds to observations made by others can also assist us in self-reflection, altering our perspective of a situation, and thereby enhancing our capacity to change, grow and develop.”
Ruth Blenkiron, Director of Human Resources, the University of South Australia
Despite this, organisations often fail to understand the importance of managerial feedback – that is, feedback given by team members to their managers.
It is not uncommon for employees to be afraid of commenting on the work of management, often because they fear the potential consequences of doing so. If an employee is giving direct feedback to a manager, they might withhold critical elements to protect themselves from the potential of perceived ‘fallout’.
However, leaders who don’t know how they’re perceived by their staff will suffer when it comes to their team’s performance.
Assistant Professor at the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, James Detert, explained to the Harvard Business Review that leader feedback is absolutely essential.
Over reliance on the chain of command prevents leaders from hearing the unvarnished truth.
The benefits of surveys
Surveys are one of the most powerful tools available when it comes to collecting strong feedback, especially 360 degree feedback surveys. Leaderskill’s unique design of our 360 surveys engages employees and leaders in the survey process, and provides actionable feedback that they can immediately use to improve performance.
Where many surveys produce a degree of negativity, Leaderskill’s 360 degree surveys focus on constructive, strength-based feedback that helps leaders grow and spreads a culture of collaboration within the organisation.
Like all good feedback surveys, we put a high value on anonymity. This means employees feel free to give honest, open feedback to leaders – feedback that will drive stronger results for the individual and the organisation as a whole.
