Let's Talk

Description

A game-changing model for giving effective feedback to peers, employees, or even your boss--without offending or demotivating.

How are you supposed to tell someone that they're not meeting expectations without crushing their spirit? Regular feedback, when delivered skillfully, can turn average performers into the hardest workers and stars into superstars. Yet many see it as an awkward chore: Recent studies have revealed 37% of managers dread giving feedback, and 65% of employees wish their managers gave more feedback.

This trail-blazing new model eliminates the guesswork. Dr. Therese Huston, the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Seattle University, discovered that the key to being listened to is to listen. First, find out what kind of feedback an employee wants most: appreciation, coaching, or evaluation. If they crave one, they'll be more receptive once their need has been satisfied. Then Huston lays out counterintuitive strategies for delivering each type of feedback successfully, including:

• Start by saying your good intentions out loud: it may feel unnecessary, but it makes all the difference.

• Side with the person, not the problem: a bad habit or behavior is probably less entrenched than you think.

• Give reports a chance to correct inaccurate feedback: they want an opportunity to talk more than they want you to be a good talker.

This handbook will make a once-stressful ordeal feel natural, and, by greasing the wheels of regular feedback conversations, help managers improve performance, trust, and mutual understanding.

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Feedback is an important tool for motivation and evaluation, so it’s important you get it right. When delivering feedback, make it clear that you’re on the other person’s side. Know what you’re looking to get out of the conversation, and listen relationally to get the other person’s side of the story.

Ask more, tell less.

One of the easiest ways to gain your employees’ trust and confidence is to ask follow-up questions. Follow-up questions show you’re engaged, and that you’re thinking closely about what they’ve said. But stay away from questions that begin with Why. These tend to put people on the defensive. Instead, ask questions that begin with What. One great example is: “What’s the real challenge here for you?” This question works well because it helps you get to the root of an issue and provide quality coaching.

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Develop an engaged and motivated workforce who know where they stand.

As a manager, you don’t need to be told that employee morale is critical. Motivated employees are productive employees, and productive employees make for profitable companies. But how do you stay connected with your team, and ensure their spirits are high? In a nutshell: quality feedback.

Giving great feedback is no easy feat. Too often, managers have to figure it out through trial and error. How much praise is too much? How do you know if you’re actually getting through to people?

That’s where this book come in. They give clear and actionable advice on how to deliver praise, coaching, and evaluations in a way that will generate better work and more engaged employees. Feedback doesn’t have to be a chore – used correctly, it’s one of the best tools managers have at their disposal.

In these book, you’ll learn

• the difference between me-strengths and we-strengths;

• why it’s hard to praise too much; and

• how to have that awkward convo you’ve been dreading.