The Top 7 Mistakes of Performance Management: U.S. Data [Infographic]

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Feedback is a crucial mechanism in managing performance. Failing to provide helpful feedback to employees about how well they’re doing their jobs is one of the seven major mistakes of performance management. And the impact could be significant; in the infograph below, employee engagement falls 45 percentage points when managers make this mistake.

Yet 41 percent of employees report their manager is making this mistake. [1] How hard could it be to give feedback? First, you set performance goals with your employees, and then you provide them feedback about their progress towards these goals. Easy as pie, right?

Wrong. Giving feedback sounds easy; doing it well is actually pretty hard. But fear not, like any other skill, it can be honed. There’s some excellent strategic advice in this white paper [hyperlink], but here are my three top tips for giving good feedback.

1) “Good job” is not good performance feedback.

It may be nice for employees to hear, but employees need specific feedback if it’s going to help them improve their performance. Instead of saying “I like what you did” you could say “I like how you used that specific technique to improve the accuracy of your output.” The latter explains specifically what the manager liked and why s/he liked it, which may prove to be useful information on future projects.

2) Don’t wait to share feedback.

Feedback lets employees know how well they’re doing in relation to their goals and what changes may be needed. Wait until the goal has been achieved to share feedback, and the employee has no opportunity to course-correct. That’s a lost opportunity for maximizing productivity. One solution is to build check-in meetings into the project plan and use that time to share your feedback.

3) Frame negative feedback in a positive way.

Let’s face it: no one likes to be the bearer of bad news. But negative feedback is sometimes necessary to help employees get back on track. The trick is in the message framing; instead of saying “If you do it this way, you’ll never finish on time” you could say “if you do it this other way, you’ll save yourself a lot of time.” The latter sounds a little sweeter and is easier for an employee to accept.

[1] WorkTrends 2012 U.S. sample