Growth tips 30 seconds to business enlightenment.

Managers - tell your people where they stand

09-Jun-2011

A study published by HBR looked at the impact of management feedback on employee productivity.  Here is our take:

The study showed that when managers give feedback to their employees on a regular basis, regardless of whether it is positive or negative – giving regular feedback leads to improved performance. 

Give regular feedback

The first big lesson is: Don’t wait until a performance review to let an employee know how they are performing.  Managers should consistently tell their employees where they stand.  Performance should be made clearly visible (execution software is great for this) so the whole team can see how everyone is tracking in real time.  Also, it is vital that managers meet 1 on 1 with each of their people (ideally once per week) to discuss their progress.

Be direct

Your feedback needs to be specific, objective, and frequent.  You must comment directly about the employee’s tangible progress on goals, or about behaviors you have directly observed.

Interestingly, different types of feedback vary in their impact – and in ways that are counter-intuitive:

• Feedback that compares a worker’s performance to their colleagues (the peer pressure effect) leads to productivity improvement
• Direct negative feedback (“You are below standard for this Key Performance Indicator”) leads to productivity improvement
• Direct positive feedback (“Well done for achieving your target for this KPI”) does little to boost productivity
• Indirect positive feedback (“You are doing a good job”) does not affect productivity.
• Indirect negative feedback (“You are not performing well”) worsens productivity

The second big lesson is counter-intuitive: Positive reviews do little to boost productivity.  Negative reviews that are vague and indirect reduce performance.  Reviews that are directly negative cause productivity to leap!

We recommend using business execution software to make performance visible and show how each employee compares in their performance to others.  Without you needing to say anything, these tools can invoke the powerful emotion of shame in those that aren’t making the grade.  It does not sound politically correct – but shame is a powerful motivator and studies clearly show that it invokes higher levels of performance.  Let the software communicate this message for you.  No one likes being at the bottom of the table.

Yes, we do believe giving praise is important (and most managers probably do not praise their people enough), but it seems that when managers directly confront poor performance - this action has the highest impact on productivity of all.  Unfortunately, many managers shy away from this type of feedback as it can involve confrontation.

Who do you need to be direct with today?

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