My Leadership Solutions

lead·er·ship: not only for those with a fancy title. High doses can lead to success. Side effects include courage and confidence

Managers, Be Open to Receiving Feedback

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In addition to giving employee feedback, it is important to be open to receiving feedback from people you manage.  It helps employees realize that you truly believe that giving and receiving feedback is effective and that you’re willing to do what you’ve asked them to do.  It also helps you become aware of skills you need to further develop.

Tips for effectively receiving feedback

  1. Encourage employees to give you feedback and be open the feedback.  It’s one thing to pay lip service to the feedback and say that you want it.  It’s another thing to actually sincerely show employees that you appreciate the feedback and are willing to implement it.
  2. When an employee is giving you feedback, show that you are listening with your body language.  Lean forward, make eye contact, and give the person your complete focus.
  3. Don’t act in a defensive manner.  It’s difficult for people to give their managers feedback and if your reaction is defensive, they will think that you’re not open to it and be unwilling to give you feedback in the future.
  4. Listen completely to the feedback before responding.  Our nature is to jump in and react to what someone has said, especially if it goes against what we think about ourselves.  Give the person a chance to finish speaking before speaking up.
  5. Approach the situation with a positive mindset.  If you’re having negative thoughts, your demeanor will show it and the person giving the feedback will not be able to be as open with you.  Think of the feedback as a way for you improve your skills and give your career a boost.
  6. Ask for specific examples for clarification if you are unclear about any part of the feedback.
  7. Ask for suggested solutions to help you improve.  Not only will asking for solutions help you improve as a manager, but it will also show your employees that you value their ideas.  Also, it can help develop them to eventually mentor someone or move into a manager position.
  8. If the feedback attacks your personality and is not work related, tell the person.  Coach the employee on how to give relevant feedback productively.

Help employees lower stress during the holiday season

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December can be an especially stressful time as people prepare for the holidays and struggle to finish up projects before the end of the year.  As a manager, you have just as much on your plate as anyone else and probably more, but you can also take some steps to ease some of the stress of your employees.

  • Instead of having each person spend money on buying gifts for Secret Santa, have everyone on your team draw a name of another team member and write a paragraph on a piece of construction paper about that person’s strengths and why she is valuable to the team.  During a team meeting, have everyone read what was written about them.
  • Ask people what you can do to help with their workload.  Check with each person on the team to see if anyone has extra time to help someone else.
  • Try to be accommodating if someone comes in a little late or has to leave early.
  • Many people take time off for vacation this month, so if you’re assigning a project to someone, make sure that they will have enough time and resources to get the project done by deadline.  If the project depends on key info from someone who is going to be out on vacation for most of the project time, then you may need to re-evaluate the deadline.
  • Encourage people to take breaks during the day to help ease their stress.