You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

It's A Two-Way Street: Giving Effective Employee Feedback Many people mistakenly think that feedback is a "one-way" street.

By Natalie Brown

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

shutterstock

Feedback has the power to influence our emotional state- the impact can be either positive or negative, depending on a variety of factors. Of course, any feedback being given, regardless of gender, race, nationality and culture should be factual, objective, timely, based on one's performance, and, of course, non-confrontational.

In this article, I want to share the two types of feedback that l believe can encourage the right performance, and keep employees motivated- these are called "supportive feedback," and "corrective feedback."

Supportive feedback is given when someone is "on the right track" and is meeting your expectations. You tell them what they are doing well in detail, and encourage them to continue. Be specific with the feedback, and make sure it is on the performance, and not the personality.

Corrective feedback is when a person's behavior or performance needs to be corrected to bring them "back on track." Timing is important here, because the other person needs to know what it is that needs to be corrected, as early as possible.

I recently had a client who asked me how she should give feedback to one of her male colleagues about a report they had submitted containing numerous grammatical mistakes. She wanted to be constructive, firm and fair, making sure the feedback was positive, so that her colleague would not make the same mistakes again.

I asked her then how she would start the feedback session. She explained that because she was giving feedback to a male colleague, who can become defensive when receiving feedback from a female colleague, she thought that being direct, with examples of the mistakes, and then making sure that it must never happen again would be the best way forward.

I have known many people who go with this approach, thinking that feedback is a "one-way" street. However, the truth is that it is not. When you have to give feedback, one of the first steps is to ask that person how they felt their performance was.

This encourages self-reflection. If they respond by stating that they felt it was brilliant, break up the performance into smaller sections, asking for their feedback until you get to that stage where the performance needs to be corrected. Asking the right questions will help you to get there quicker.

I explained to my client that in order to get to the exact required behavior or performance, a person needs to go through a number of little changes in behavior to reach the desired outcome. If we wait for a person to get to this state in one go, then we may be waiting a long time.

Related: Infographic: How To Give Constructive Feedback To Your Employees

Natalie Brown

Managing Director, Select Training and Management Consultancy LLC

Natalie Brown’s career began in the academic field in Abu Dhabi at both secondary and tertiary levels and worked her way up to eventually establishing and managing Select Training and Management Consultancy. She understands the importance of developing the younger generations today and ensuring companies setting up or operating in the UAE and wider region also have enough cultural awareness to succeed. After six years as an academic, she joined the corporate world, where she not only delivers her training and consultancy to the highest standards which are memorable, but also paves the way for young GCC nationals to lead and inspire the generations to come.

Thought Leaders

How To Improve Your Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence in 7 Easy Steps

Using these simple but effective approaches will help a person in their business, life and relationships.

Women Entrepreneur™

Rayne Founder Sarah Jones On How To Build Solutions That Address Real Market Needs

"Embrace failure as a learning opportunity- because not every idea or decision will lead to success, and that's okay."

Side Hustle

The Remote Side Hustle a 43-Year-Old Musician Works on for 1 Hour a Day Earns Nearly $3,000 a Month: 'All From the Comfort of Home'

Sam Ziegler wanted to supplement his income as a professional drummer — then his tech skills and desire to help people came together.

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Says This CEO Is the 'Taylor Swift' of Tech

Meta's CEO posed with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Instagram Wednesday.

Business News

Tim Cook Was Reportedly Rejected From Applying For an Apple Card

The card officially launched in the U.S. on August 20, 2019, and features perks such as no late or over-limit fees.

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Told Meta Engineers to 'Figure Out' Snapchat's Privacy Protections: 'We Have No Analytics on Them'

Recently unsealed court documents detail "Project Ghostbusters," Meta's project to work around Snapchat's end-to-end encryption to intercept data.