Master Real-Time Feedback: A Manager’s Practical Guide

Summary:

Understand what real-time feedback is and how it can help you drive a high-performance culture in your teams. How the right inputs given at the right time can not only help the individual’s growth but also helps the overall progress of the team towards the strategic goals. A modern work place manager is not just a reporting authority any more. They are coaches and mentors for the team. This article will empower you to use real time feedback as a strategic tool to act as a guide for your team and enable them to execute accurately.

What is real time employee feedback?

An ongoing process to give feedback to an employee as soon as a situation or an event has concluded. This could include a quick catch up post an important meeting or completion of a milestone in a project or an informative email sent post a review of a submission.

Unlike the traditional method of providing feedback at a fixed interval (quarterly or annually) real time feedback ensures high quality and actionable inputs for the individual to improve or build on the current state of performance. This makes feedback action driven and not event led.

Why is real time feedback important?

If a company wants to build a thriving performance and growth culture it is important that employees are given regular, actionable feedback. This not only keeps the employee engaged but also ensure timely completion of milestones that helps a team deliver results.

Real time feedback when captured right also has the power to enhance the performance management process of a team by removing recency bias and ensuring all the relevant inputs are considered for an individual’s review.

Real time feedback as a strategy execution tool:

Think of an employee as a missile that is supposed to hit a target within a specific timeframe with precision. Even if the missile is launched with at most precision towards its target several factors like the wind or terrain can run it off course.

To avoid this, multiple mechanisms are installed to make sure the landing is accurate. Every time the missile goes off course a combination of radar, GPS, gyroscope and accelerometer make tiny adjustments to bring it back on track.

Similarly, when a team sets a goal and every individual is responsible to deliver a result, the real time feedback acts a guidance system.

When a manager gives quick, specific feedback – “This is working, this needs improvement, this is what needs you focus next” the employee can recalibrate quickly. This helps the team remain agile and achieve ambitious goals, despite the challenges and difficulties faced.

Employees are 3.6 times more likely to do outstanding work when their manager provides regular feedback.

Real time feedback for performance management and employee engagement:

Real time feedback when captured right using an effective tool and combined with the right framework could add significant value to the performance management process of any company.

Traditional performance management cycles act like check list activities for the company as the real growth that happens through out the period is not considered.

This leads to lower engagement and high attrition among high potential teams. So, it is necessary to capture all the feedback given to the individual not just for the continuous improvement of the person for the over performance management system of an organisation.

Gallup data show that 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged.

Although this can be a difficult task for an HR to do, Worxmate’s AI powered performance management solution simplifies through automating the process and giving an AI driven analysis for all the meeting while the periodic review is conducted.

{learn how continuous feedback can be used in performance evaluation using AI}

Through real time feedback the manager makes sure the project as well as the individual remains on track to achieve goals, making the manager not just a reporting authority but also a coach or mentor. According to Gallup such ongoing conversations are one of the most important metrics for employee engagement.

One of Gallup’s biggest discovery: The manager or team leader alone accounts for 70% of the variance in employee engagement.

Now that we know how important real time feedback can be, lets looks at some important dos and don’ts.

Dos and Don’ts of real time feedback:

• Dos:

  • Keep the feedback timely: It is important to give feedback to the individual when the event or milestone is fresh. While this increases the impact of the inputs given by the manager it also helps the employee recollect the action and apply the insights appropriately.
  • Make it solution oriented: Always make the feedback forward looking. Include how the improvements can be achieved and don’t just limit the conversation to what needs to improve. This gives the individual a direction to take quick actions and improve fast.
  • Always explain the “why”: Every feedback given to the employee needs to be aligned with an ultimate goal, this helps the individual understand exactly why actions are required. Such clarity converts feedback into guidance.
  • Make it conversational: It is always better to encourage self-reflection among the team by asking simple open-ended questions like “how do you feel?” or “what could you have done differently?”. This increases the involvement of the employee in their own improvement.
  • Confirm understanding: Once the feedback has been given always make sure the understanding has been passed on. Do not assume the insight has landed, when you conclude ask their thoughts and inputs. This make the activity more productive and engaging for both the parties involved.

• Don’ts:

  • Don’t give feedback when the emotions are high: Always avoid giving feedback when the employee is stressed or excited as such feedback could back fire. Take a small pause to let the emotions stabilize. Prioritise effectiveness over timeliness.
  • Don’t just stick to the negatives: Include positive aspects as well, “what went well” and “what can be repeated”. Only suggestions about what needs fixing can be demoralizing and make the overall feedback mechanism uncomfortable for the individual.
  • Don’t give feedback in public: It is always better to give constructive feedback in private. Avoid giving inputs in front of the team or external stakeholders. This ensures psychological safety and does not make the employee feel exposed.
  • Don’t make it generic or vague: Relating the feedback with specific action or event makes it more meaningful. Always avoid statements like “you always” or “you never” which seem unfair and can make the employee shut down.
  • Don’t over complicate: Real time feedback is meant to give quick inputs to the individual. Don’t get into deeper performance conversations during this process, those can be done during more formal one on one meetings. These insights should be more casual and precise. 

Conclusion:

Real time feedback if done right can be a game changer for an organisation. From increasing the engagement at the individual level to keeping the entire team on track to achieve periodic goals, real time feedback plays a vital role in the over all strategic growth of a company.