BOSS SPECIAL .......5 WAYS TO Give Negative Feedback to Employees

5 WAYS TO Give Negative Feedback to Employees

Feedback at work is important for an individual's development. However, some people are over-sensitive to negative feedback, which makes it crucial for managers and leaders to understand how to convey it.

1 COMBINE NEGATIVE & POSITIVE

The ideal way of giving feedback to someone who's extremely emotional is to go for the sandwich method, says Swapnil Kamat, founder of Work Better Training. Here, you sandwich the negative feedback between two layers of positive feedback. This helps in softening the impact of the negative feedback. By starting and ending in positive words, you ensure that the negative feedback has the right impact.

2 BE OBJECTIVE

It is important that you ensure that the person receiving the feedback knows that the feedback is not personal vendetta. “Such kind of fundamental attribution error has the employee linking the negative feedback to the person giving it,“ says Sudhir Dhar, director HR, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. “So, if you ask someone reporting to you the reason for being late, she might interpret that you are a control freak. Sadly, nearly all the time, the attribution strains the relationship between the two parties,“ he says.

3 CHOOSE WORDS CAREFULLY

“Rather than telling someone outright that they are bad at something, it is better when you word it in a less harsh manner, and also provide suggestions and solutions to help them get better at what they are currently bad at,“ says Kamat. Dhar says, “Sometimes, the most innocuous of sentences is perceived in a way which makes it seem threatening and derogatory.“ The key is to make the employee feel safe. Only when she feels safe, would they be in a state of mind to understand and appreciate what you are saying.

4 IMPORTANCE OF FEEDBACK

One should begin by highlighting the importance of feedback -both positive as well as negative -in a professional's life. “You could then follow that up with an example of how constructive feedback has helped you or someone you know, or the said employee knows, positively and made that person a better professional,“ says Kamat. While doing this, always make sure that your tone is calm and composed and like that of a mentor, rather than a rude, condescending or angry one, he says.

5 GIVE FEEDBACK IN PRIVATE

With emotional people, it is also important that you always give feedback in private. “Emotions are a result of a person's sensitivity, and negative or constructive feedback is usually a very sensitive topic with highly emotional people,“ says Kamat. Giving such people feedback in front of a room full of people can have an adverse impact, he says.

-     ET's Rica Bhattacharyya talks to some experts.