How Can I Get Feedback from My Employees?

Michelle Venturini
December 21, 2009 | COMMENTS

Most successful professionals have benefitted from feedback over the course of their career. Unfortunately, feedback is harder and harder to come by as one rises through the management ranks and all but impossible to find if you've made the leap into business ownership. If you are one who appreciates and uses feedback for personal growth and development, its absence creates a huge gap.

Chances are that when you've asked your staff for feedback you've gotten half-hearted platitudes. A few brave souls may have offered some carefully worded suggestions, but it's probably been a while since someone held up a performance mirror and invited you to look into it. No matter how sincere your request, reality is that when you become “the boss” your staff treats you differently, and that includes their candor when providing feedback.

Does this mean that you'll never get substantive feedback again? Not necessarily. But it does mean that you'll have to be very careful about how you solicit and respond to it. The rest of this article includes tips for getting feedback from your staff.

Start by evaluating your relationship with those from whom you want feedback. If fear or intimidation is present, even to the minutest degree, you will have to engage a mediator to get the candid feedback you're seeking. If you think this is the case, find an experienced professional who can meet with your staff, solicit feedback on your behalf, and deliver a summary report. You'll have to guarantee anonymity and refrain from trying to figure out who said what. The right professional will hold you accountable to this and won't let you rationalize away the comments you get.

If your relationship has a solid base of trust and mutual respect you may be able to get meaningful feedback through an evaluation tool. You'll still have to guarantee anonymity, which means that comments will have to go through a third party that is trusted by both you and your staff. In all likelihood this will require a third party coach or administrator who can combine comments and deliver a summary report to you.

After feedback has been collected, but before you've gotten a report, express sincere and unqualified gratitude to your staff. The more personal and direct the better. If at all possible, talk with each person individually. If that's not practical, use a group setting such as a staff meeting. Simply say something like: “I'm grateful for the time you took to give me feedback about how I'm doing in my role as [owner]. I know that sharing feedback is difficult, especially with [your boss], but I promise that I will treat your comments with respect and will honestly reflect on what you have to tell me.”  As a last resort you can use e-mail, which is better than nothing (but not by much).

The moment of truth comes when you get the feedback. Your response will be closely scrutinized. If you ignore the feedback or take too long to do anything with it the message is that you don't care or that it isn't a high priority. Employees will file it away as another wasted exercise that didn't go anywhere. If you have a strong and discernable emotional reaction, such as anger, hurt feelings, or excessive defensiveness, employees will be uncomfortable, scared, or regretful. It may be so uncomfortable that they think “I'm never doing that again.”

In order for you and your staff to get the most out of this feedback exercise it is important for you to acknowledge the specifics of what the feedback told you, share what you plan to do with it, and invite your staff to hold you accountable. The best practice for this process includes:

•  Hosting a meeting at which you summarize the main feedback messages. It isn't necessary to be apologetic for the negative comments or overly humble about the positive ones. Instead, treat it as an opportunity to confirm your interpretation of the feedback. The meeting will probably be relatively short and there will be little input from the staff that attends. You could open with a statement like: “Thank you for making it here today. I've had time to reflect on the feedback that you provided for me and I want to take a few minutes to share the main themes of that feedback.  This is what the feedback told me. . . .”  Pause at the end and ask if anyone has questions or comments, and then share what you plan to do next. Something like: “Over the next week I'm going to write development goals and action plans for myself and will share those with you when they are finalized.”

•  Writing 3-5 goals and an action plan for each one that includes a timeline and major steps. Share the goals and action plans with your staff and invite any comments.

•  Creating and following through on accountability measures. You might do this through periodic status reports, creation of a work team to address something specific, or behavior changes.

If you're thinking that this seems like a lot of time and work, you're right. But remember, your role and status have changed significantly and require similar changes in how you carry out previously unremarkable tasks.

As you establish a pattern of seeking feedback, responding positively, and building relationships with your staff this process will become shorter and less formal. If you are diligent, it will eventually reach a point where feedback is constant, in the moment, and free flowing between all staff members. When this happens you will have accomplished the Holy Grail of corporate culture—feedback and constant improvement. Along the way you'll notice that retention is up, recruiting is easier, employees are happier, and your company is more competitive.

Michelle Venturini is owner and president of Venturini Business Consulting, LLC, which provides HR management and business consulting services to the financial industry. Contact her at 608-225-8887 or vbc@tds.net.