Giving feedback can be difficult when people fear fallout
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 at the University of South Australia.
Despite this, businesses fail to understand the importance of managerial feedback – that is, feedback given by workers.
Employees have long been 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 can withhold critical elements due to the perceived fallout.
However, leaders who don’t know how they’re perceived among 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,”
James Detert, Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management
The benefits of surveys
Surveys are one of the most powerful tools available when it comes to collecting strong feedback, especially Leaderskill’s 360 Facilitated® surveys. The unique design of these surveys engages employees and leaders in the survey process and provides actionable feedback that they can immediately use to improve performance.
Where many surveys have the risk of producing a degree of negativity, these strengths-based surveys help leaders build on what they already do well, enabling a culture of collaboration within the organisation.
Like all good surveys, these surveys put a high value on anonymity. This mean team members feel free to give honest, open feedback to leaders – feedback that will drive stronger results for the individual and the organisation as a whole.
