One of the best ways to guide and direct the performance of team members is through consistent feedback. The annual review is too late to affect performance on day-to-day basis. People want to know whether they are meeting the standard, how their work or performance is perceived, and how they can grow and improve.

Here are four choices for the way that we, as leaders, might give feedback:

No Feedback– The absolute worst kind of feedback is none at all. People want to know where they stand. Most people want to perform well and meet the standard, if for no other reason than to stay employed. It would certainly be unfair to a person to reveal in an annual review that they have been missing the mark for the past year. Yet this is frequently done.

Negative Feedback– For some people, there is a reluctance to give negative feedback. Our mothers taught us that “If you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all.” For other people, they can only criticize. Negative feedback is a steady diet of not enough, not good enough, not acceptable. When presented in this way, it comes across as critical and is demoralizing. Negative feedback has no value and no place in effective leadership. Instead, keep reading.

Positive Feedback– While many people think of feedback as only presenting the bad news, there is always a need in relationship to express appreciation. This is what positive feedback does. As a leader, we need to find opportunities to both feel and express both gratitude and appreciation. It is easy to be so busy that we don’t take the time. Or we might have a subconscious thought that says a certain level of performance is what is expected. But expressing appreciation helps both the speaker and the hearer to have more positive thoughts. It strengthens the relationship between them. A culture of appreciation builds a motivated and enthusiastic team. Remember though that positive feedback should focus on specific action or behavior. “You’re so smart” is not nearly as valuable as “I really appreciated the way that you helped the team come to that conclusion.”

Corrective Feedback– There are also many opportunities for corrective feedback. Sometimes these are due to error or omission. But there are also many opportunities for growth and improvement. Corrective feedback is not intended to blame or criticize. Instead it is intended to understand the cause of a problem or shortfall and to prevent the problem or shortfall from reoccurring. While it may address a negative, such as a mistake or a problem behavior, corrective feedback is a gift to the recipient in that it is helping him/her grow or improve. It may improve the quality of their work, their productivity, or the quality of their life. Corrective feedback is a respectful dialogue that focuses on the problem. The best corrective feedback is done in a coaching mode, where the leader guides, through questions, a discussion in which the team member identifies the cause and the solution for prevention or improvement. When you might be tempted to use negative feedback, use corrective feedback instead.

Here are ten tips on giving effective feedback:

1. Focus on performance, not the personality.
2. Emphasize facts, not feelings.
3. Focus on the individual effort.
4. Feedback is best served warm, in other words, provide feedback as soon as possible after (or even during) the activity.
5. Be clear, direct, and specific.
6. Focus on the fix.
7. Use your words wisely.
8. Provide feedback in digestible doses.
9. Make it a two-way conversation.
10. Balance negative or corrective feedback with praise or positive feedback.

We will come back to these ten tips for a deeper discussion in another article.

The effective leader leads through a relationship of trust and respect. The effective leader demonstrates humility, caring deeply about the others, and is focused on the future, both of his/her organization and of the people that he/she leads. Applying liberal doses of feedback, both positive and corrective, builds the relationship and builds the followers.

Are you providing enough feedback to your team members, both positive and corrective?