I get regular questions from clients about how to correct people’s mistakes at work.
In most cases, when a person knows they made a mistake, they don’t need any help in punishing themselves over it…
Perhaps a different way to think about this is how we create a feedback-rich environment so making mistakes and talking about it is part of what we do.
What do we know about feedback?
We know that in most cases, when a person knows they made a mistake, they don’t need any help in punishing themselves over it…
We know that if our team only hears from us when something goes wrong… we’re not going to be a very effective leader.
We know that most of us don’t give enough feedback.
We know from many years of research that feedback works well to improve performance.
We know that we all need positive and constructive feedback, and that high performing teams provide this to each other at a ratio of 6:1 or higher.
What we often don’t think about, is what happens when people don’t get enough feedback on how they are performing…
This HBR article discusses the stories even high performers start to tell themselves when leaders don’t give them enough feedback.
The effects can be very damaging to a person’s self-confidence, performance, and relationships…
…and yet, it is so easy to fix this. Reach out to your team today and tell them something you appreciate about them or mention something they’ve done well this week.
If you are interested in learning more about how behavioral science education can help you create a more effective work environment for your teams, leave a comment below or email me directly at drjohnaustin@reachingresults.com.
