How to Give Negative Feedback Constructively

Aug 11

Introduction

As a manager, one of the most difficult tasks is giving negative feedback to your employees. However, feedback, especially criticism is the most important aspect of managing, as it works to improve employee and team performance. Negative feedback is a powerful tool, and if it is not used correctly, or overused, it can be detrimental to the productivity and stress of a work environment.

This article looks to outline some negative feedback strategies taken from interviews conducted with managers in many different industries by the team at ManageBetter.

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Why Give Constructive Negative Feedback?

Giving good constructive feedback can result in changes:

Enhances employee performance
Improves a manager's leadership skills
Ensures employees understand the expectations
Helps employees feel supported and cared about in the workplace
Allows employees to ask questions for clarification
Strengthens employees' ability to perform their work

It is always important to have an honest and transparent relationship with your co-workers and employees, but negative feedback can get in the way of that. Delivering negative feedback in a manner that is easily digestible and supportive is paramount to building a positive relationship between you and your team members.

Manager Proven Strategies to Give Negative Feedback to Employees:

Honesty

When negative feedback must be given, be honest with the employee who is receiving it. Many managers try to sugar coat their feedback so it doesn't come off as “bad,” but such strategies can lead to miscontructions of the feedback. Convey the comments in a way that is clear and understandable to the employee. Honest feedback ensures that workers are hearing your criticisms of their work and correctly understanding the position that they are in and the next steps needed. Ask follow up questions to confirm the employee’s understanding.

Positive Focus

When giving negative feedback, try and focus on improvements the employee can make. Make sure the issues at hand are clear and understood, but deliver them with a focus on the next steps. This will show your employees that you are there to work with them to improve. For instance, you can offer to create goals for the employee using ManageBetter's ActionPlan, where you can track the employee’s progress on improvements.

Sandwich Method

The Sandwich Method consists of the following steps in giving feedback to an individual:

Give a genuine and unique complement about what has been going well
Provide the critique
Offer some words of encouragement

This method allows for negative feedback to be delivered in a way that is caring and supportive.

The employee can feel your care for their success and your desire to encourage their growth. No one wants to hear negative feedback, but taking the time to construct your message in a way that demonstrates your interest and personalized attention to the individual will make the experience less stressful.

Group Training

You may notice that a group of employees are lacking a specific skill set. Instead of approaching each of them individually regarding the issue, have a group discussion and learning session instead. You can then teach the individuals the necessary skills, whether it be a software or organizational strategy, and then no one will have to seek out training individually for this skill. In addition, this will demonstrate your strong leadership skills in guiding the team to growth and success.

Net Performance Score

Some companies may have the ability to deliver net performance scores, which represent a quantitative measure of assessing the customer’s satisfaction. These scores typically originate from customer satisfaction surveys, where managers can choose to add space for written feedback as well. These scores can offer significant information about how the company is doing. Using this data, a manager can present strengths and weaknesses to the group and discuss methods of improvement in both categories. Doing so associates real data, not just your opinion, to negative feedback, which may resonate more with some employees.

Show the Employee What They Are Doing Incorrectly

Instead of simply stating the criticism, take time to show the employee what they are doing, if applicable. This will help avoid any confusion the employee may have about the criticism and allow for you to show them how to complete the task correctly or more effectively.

Conclusion

As a manager, delivering negative feedback can be a daunting task. Understanding the best way to deliver criticism can come from your knowledge of the employee. Some just need clear negative feedback, while others might benefit more from being shown what to do. In general, take some time to reflect on the employee prior to delivering negative feedback to determine how you can best help them succeed.