What can you do to provide feedback in a remote world blog
How to provide feedback to coworkers can be difficult. What should my feedback be specific and how can I achieve the need for sensitivity with directness? What can I do to promote an engaging dialogue that leaves my friend feeling inspired and positive?
Remote working environments can amplify those challenges. The body language and subtle signals that may be readily perceived when in person may be difficult to discern from a distance. When giving constructive feedback, whether positive or not, wires get crossed, and people may not be in the right state of mind to hear what you have to say.
But feedback, with all its pitfalls and challenges it is an essential part of working together. It isn't enough to hope your team will magically narrow the gap on those areas of improvement; nor will your team be able to continue their work indefinitely without leadership support and support.
This article we'll discuss the best practices you can use to help improve your feedback with your colleagues. So, let's get started.
How to give constructive feedback
Consider the method of delivery
In the plethora of options for communication available make sure you choose the right one. It is a good idea to inquire regularly newly recruited team members (or the current members of your team) which way they prefer communicating, as well as the way they prefer receiving feedback.
Although your company may have a standard for regular reviews, feedback could happen at any point and you'll want to make sure the team members are at their desks and are comfortable receiving the feedback. This could mean shutting off the camera, or mailing a thoughtful email, or booking periodic 1:1 meetings, based on their personal comfort level and objectives within the company.
Create a safe environment
If you work in a real office you'll find plenty of ways to create a positive impression through the environment. You could invite a colleague out for coffee and unpack how they felt about the big meeting with clients that didn't go so well you could go to a conference room for intense conversations, or even take them to the hall to give them a quick hugs. But in a remote world there is a lot of difficulty in choosing the best setting for whatever you want to discuss. In the end, you'll need to set up psychologically safety cues.
That could include ensuring the time of your meeting will not encounter any external distractions or pressures, dressing for the situation (a casual dress code can go a long way to make people feel comfortable) and even suggesting the possibility of a phone call or camera shut-off to give people a break from the screen. An all-voice meeting can also bring down the intimidation factor and encourages active listening on both sides. That is why we are on to the next point.
Listen (but don't pry!)
In a workforce that is distributed, in which communication habits are continuously shifting and the boundaries between work-life are less opaque and transparent, listening actively builds trust and confidence. Active listening gives you situational understanding of what your colleagues go through in their lives beyond work and which factors are impacting their work performance. Listening gives you opportunities to enhance feedback, learn the reasons for not being successful, and how to create the best working environment for the colleagues.
Begin with the positive rather than the bad
It's long been known that a compliment sandwich -- where negative feedback is sandwiched in between two positives is an efficient method of delivering difficult information. Positive feedback, however, has taken on a new urgency in recent times. The majority of people are under stress on many personal fronts (like health, family, social, existential, and despite your best efforts, likely professional) and could really benefit from positive feedback.
From these constant stressful situations comes what psychologists call negativity bias that tends to concentrate and dwell on negative criticism instead of positive feedback. Employers have to be extra vigilant in promoting the good over the bad. Whatever your feedback might be, it's best to start from a place of empathy and kindness and recognize the effort employees are putting into this challenging time.
Make sure you are specific and concrete in your feedback
To counter the negative bias, you should focus on specific feedback that provides practical insights instead of general remarks on confidence, attitude, work ethic or conflict resolution abilities that could easily be mistaken or ineffective.
Good feedback isn't just a performance review, it's also an opportunity for growth and goal-setting. Feedback that is most beneficial comes provided when you have a clear goal and expectation in mind, and can clearly communicate what this person can do to help them get there.
You can also tie feedback to actions and the impact it has: How their strategic thinking directly led to a positive income, or how the lack of communication resulted in another employee needing to repeat certain work and how it might be better handled next time.
Your feedback should be prioritized to highlight the most important points
Instead of saving an endless list of criticisms or comments to sift through at in a conference, you should consider the most important feedback you can provide to areas that could have most impact in areas in the areas that matter.
Go through key takeaways together
After your meeting, ask for them to discuss the key points. Then, you can think about ways that they might overcome the gaps in their performance or continue to grow in their position (and how you might help them) or have them offer up their summary of the feedback meeting in the event that they're at ease enough to be able to. It's important to make sure you're both aligned and you're able to make sure information has landed exactly where it was intended.
Follow the steps
After a few weeks or even months after your feedback meeting follow up with them to see what they're up to. It's a good opportunity to continue building trust, make sure they're capable of balancing their responsibilities in a variety of ways, or reinforce positive feedback.
Tips for video collaboration, as well as feedback
Record your presentations using video to provide comments
Pre-record post-mortem thoughts and group comments
How to give feedback FAQs
Are there any examples of positive feedback?
Positive feedback example: "Sarah has done an remarkable job in tackling unneeded jobs and creating useful tools for the team. We would love to watch her increase her expertise through tackling new assignments and imparting her knowledge and skills through presentations and other tools." What is peer feedback?
Couch constructive feedback by giving positive feedback. Your feedback should be actionable and specific in addition to being tied to a specific purpose. Create opportunities for team members to take action. Listen with empathy and offer help when it is needed. What's an example of constructive feedback?
Feedback constructive "Phil is able to handle the workload which was 10 percent higher than the prior year, and was enthusiastic managing his program efficiently while maintaining timelines. One challenge I would present to him in the coming year is to boost his communications with stakeholders to maintain openness throughout his project's cycle in order to keep ahead of potential roadblocks."