Giving Feedback: 15 Examples for Setting Performance Goals

Giving Feedback is one of the most powerful tools to develop employees and improve performance through honest feedback of the work done best and areas that need improvement.

Giving Feedback: Set Goals for your Employees. Here are some examples:

• Mention an activity which the person did that deserves recognition before mentioning areas that he/she needs to improve on
• Try to link the performance of employees to the positive outcomes of the company while giving feedback
• Give daily and weekly reviews in order to make tracking and analyzing an employee's work much easier
• Allow the opportunity for one-on-one feedback in order to make it easier for the other person to say what he/she really thinks
• Focus on the employee's behavior rather than on his/her personality traits
• Give the employee an opportunity to speak up during the meeting or ask questions about the feedback afterward
• Try to remain as neutral as possible and appreciate both the bad and the good aspects of the employee
• Write down observations and try not to muddle them with interpretations and emotions
• Divide feedback into positive and negative columns for personal use and to ensure that it is fair and balanced
• Recognize the efforts and behavior of the employee and encourage him/her to keep the same attitude towards his/her work

Giving Feedback: Improve and master this core skill with these ideas

• Give a balanced feedback. Feedback has both appreciation and constructive criticism that should help the employee improve in areas that are highly important to the company. Starting by giving a positive feedback before you give a negative one acts as motivation and uplifts the employee's working morale working hard to rectify what is detected as a weak area.
• Be thoughtful and very accurate in your feedback. Feedback should be precise giving accurately the areas that require improvement. You don't have to list everything that the employee needs to change on, simply prioritize a few areas that are based on what is most critical that the employee can improve in and how it helps their career and improve the company.
• Use relaxed words and keep a positive tone. Using the right words keeps your self-confidence high thus helping you improve your skills easier. By using specific words that are neutral like. I have observed where you go wrong? allows the receiver to listen keenly to the feedback. This kind of feedback is mostly taken to heart and worked on to see success in the future.
• Keep communication lines open. Communication should be two ways so that the other person can ask questions and get them answered as well. The receiver should be given room to ask detailed questions and potentially disagree with you or not. Don't communicating expecting everyone to agree with you but give room for feedback from the receiver. It might be very constructive.
• Give suggestions and help on how to improve. Feedback once given, might not fulfill the purpose if no suggestions are given on how to improve and give better results. Offer training suggestions that could improve the skills to perform specific tasks while proposing to give support where required. This is the sure way to make feedback count.