Rock Products is the aggregates industry's leading source for market analysis and technology solutions, delivering critical content focusing on aggregates-processing equipment; operational efficiencies; management best practices; comprehensive market
Issue link: https://rock.epubxp.com/i/77035
Positive Feedback: The Breakfast Of Champions! Let Your Employees Know How They're Doing: It Is A Key To Their Success. By Steve Schumacher Do you remember the time your teacher praised you in front of other students? Do you remember clearly the positive feedback from your boss over the past five years? Do you remember the positive things your friends and family have said about you? If you do, you are in the minority. Most of us don't remember the posi‐ tive things that are said about us or to us. We remember much more clearly the negative feedback we have received and the negative things that have happened to us. Your employees are the same, they will remember the criticism you give them and forget the positive feedback you give them. We all know that positive feedback is one of the tools managers have to help motivate their employees, yet when I talk to employees at all lev‐ els, the thing I hear most often is "I don't get enough feedback from my boss, and when I do it's negative." If I interviewed your employees and asked them about how you give feedback and the nature of it, what would they say? If you want your employees to say that you give meaningful positive feedback on a regular basis, do the following: When you see it, say it. When someone does something well, you need to let them know right away. Don't store it up for 36 ROCKproducts • AUGUST 2012 later. If you wait, you will forget the specifics and the employee will likely forget what hap‐ pened. Hold yourself account‐ able for catching people doing things right every day. You certainly let them know right away if they make a mis‐ take, do the same with praise. Be specific. When giving positive feedback, tell the person EXACTLY what they did well. Don't use generalizations like "good attitude," "team player," or "dedicated worker." Those types of terms cause misun‐ derstanding and confusion as to what the person did that you liked. Paint a picture for the person of what you saw them do or heard them say. Tell them the impact of what they did. This step involves telling the per‐ son the result of what they did. It can be something that will get them a bonus, improve department per‐ formance, impact the bottom line, or help you do your job better. Don't overload them with how their behavior affected every part of the company. Make it appropriate to them and the situation. Give more positives than negatives. Research says that for positive feedback to be heard and remem‐ bered, it must be done much more frequently than negative feedback. I've met many managers who tell me they give a lot of feedback but Steve Schumacher is a management consultant, trainer and public speaker with more than 25 years of experience in numerous industries throughout North America, including aggregates operations. He can be reached at sschuma@gmail.com. their employees complain that they get little or none. Most often that's because man‐ agers don't give enough positives in relation to the negatives. A 4‐1 ratio of positives to negatives is what will get employees to hear the positives. Focus on face-to-face feedback. So often, I see managers who con‐ stantly think that they have to give people "things" to recognize their performance. The reality is that most of us just want our boss to look us in the eye and give us posi‐ tive feedback versus some object with a company logo on it that everyone else has already. We all like to be given a reward for something we did, but don't get bogged down with doing that in place of the face‐to‐face positive feedback. Positive feedback www.rockproducts.com