Make Good Use of Feedback

Feedback is an English word that means to feed back or respond to a certain request, action or event.

Nowadays, it's a widely used and highly beneficial tool, with the aim of orientating your employees with regard to the role they play within the corporate market.

However, there is still some prejudice about the use of feedback, as many people attribute a negative weight to this procedure, because they associate it with ‘an ear tug’. Of course, that's not its purpose.

Feedback is an opinion on the performance of a person, or group of people, in carrying out a job, with the sole aim of assessing their performance in order to identify the points that need to be improved.

The aim of feedback is to maximise positive points, mitigate or eliminate negative ones and show employees the results of what they have done, thereby helping them to grow, both personally and professionally.

However, care must be taken to deliver feedback in an appropriate manner, so that it is clear that both ‘positive feedback’ and ‘negative feedback’ and ‘steering feedback’ have the same purpose of promoting the growth of people and the improvement of processes, and never the other way round.

Positive feedback (recognition)

This type of feedback is the most eagerly awaited by everyone, as it highlights positive points, such as good behaviour, the effective resolution of a problem or the smooth running of activities.

With this feedback, you will show your employee that you are attentive to their performance, that you care about their development and above all that you recognise when they do a good job, continually encouraging them to be more effective and more efficient.

Negative Feedback (correction)

Despite the charge of negative energy that is natural in a procedure of this type, this is feedback with some relevance, as it shows which attitudes or postures should be corrected, as well as identifies inappropriate postures or attitudes that negatively affect professionalism.

Getting this feedback from a manager is very important, because this way the employee can better understand what the company's objectives are and what it expects from each person in their role.

It's a great opportunity for the employee to correct any paths in their work that they may have adopted for some erroneous reason.

Steering Feedback (guidance)

This feedback is a combination of the two previous ones. It shows what's wrong and presents alternatives for solving the problem.

Through directional feedback we can identify where we got it right and where we went wrong and still manage to find a solution to the problem in an appropriate way, as well as improving what is being done in an appropriate manner.

This is the type of feedback that helps managers the most and has the best results with employees. That's why it's recommended that it be one of the most widely used in companies, especially with those employees who find it most difficult to recognise their shortcomings.

In short, a leader who is concerned about the good development of his or her team must take on the responsibility of giving them feedback on a regular basis, whether it's corrective feedback, direction or recognition.

Giving feedback properly and regularly will make your employees feel valued and recognised. In this way, they will be able to understand the consequences of their actions and identify the path they need to take in order to become increasingly qualified, increase their motivation and grow in their profession, as well as in the company they work for.

The more employees feel encouraged, the lower the turnover in the company, which will be able to retain and improve its talents while creating a healthier and more productive corporate environment!