Let’s start off with what not to do as a manager, avoid giving feedback.

Many do and they do so because it makes them, the manager, feel uncomfortable. They’re uncertain of what to say, they fear the employee’s reaction, or believe they’re just too busy to do it. They neglect the point of feedback, that it is intended to improve and help someone’s performance.

In today’s workplace, this is a big misstep, especially with Gen Z workers (born about 1995-2010). Danielle Abril writes in The Washington Post that not only does Gen Z want feedback at work but they want it “…timely, collaborative, empathetic and balanced.”

Some managers reading this might be rolling their eyes, stuck in the perception that Gen Z is high maintenance and needy.

It might be because many of us from the older generations are quick to remember what feedback was like for us just starting out. Many of us received opinions and corrections from our bosses that were hardly helpful. I experienced this when I was 24. My boss’s boss did a walkthrough of my department with me and at the end of it told me “You’ll never get promoted from your current role. You’re too much of a cheerleader. People think cheerleaders are naïve.” He saw my blank stare and my face turn red. He quickly followed it up with, “Don’t take it personally. It’s just work.” He walked off and I nearly ran to my office and burst into tears.

Looking back, the feedback was accurate. I was indeed a bit of a cheerleader, but the delivery was brutal and because the feedback left me angry and embarrassed, I didn’t learn from it.

I think Gen Z is on to something. Delivering feedback that is timely, collaborative, empathetic, and balanced are feedback best practices. What most managers need is some basic guidance on how to follow those best practices.

If you find yourself in this camp, here are a few tips to make giving feedback easier for you and more productive for your team.

Talk about feedback before you must give it

As a boss, when you talk about feedback as a typical and necessary aspect of work, you then lay the foundation for productive performance conversations. Part of the reason feedback can sting is because it’s often given unexpectedly. Talking about it before it comes up helps make it expected (and thus take out some of the sting).

First, talk to the team as a group and begin by defining feedback. Here’s a definition to use:

Feedback is specific and genuine information based on past work or behaviors intended to encourage or improve performance.

Then, discuss the importance of it and how it helps everyone achieve results. No high performing team exists without feedback. Share stories about good ways of giving and receiving feedback and bad ways. Acknowledge that feedback can sometimes feel embarrassing or disappointing but that the goal is to help everyone advance in their work. Including you – the boss. This is where you also invite feedback from the team.

Then, in your regular one-on-one meetings, ask each person how they want to receive feedback and when. Give people the freedom to choose. Would they like it first in an email with a face-to-face follow-up? Or maybe right after something was observed, in the moment? Or, unless it’s urgent, wait until your regularly scheduled one-on-one’s? As the boss, also describe how you like to receive feedback.

Give good feedback liberally

The word feedback must be associated with both positive and critical information. So, give good feedback regularly. This means to acknowledge someone’s contribution in a meeting by telling them they had good ideas or caused you to think differently about the issue. Notice when they make the right decision. Catch your team doing things well. This will reinforce to your team that you respect them, and you value their contributions. This makes people feel more secure, certain, and confident around their boss. People also perform their work better when their boss genuinely appreciates them.

Allow for self-evaluation first   

When the time comes to give feedback, allow the person to evaluate themselves first. In situations where someone makes a mistake or drops a ball, often they know they did. Ask what happened and then ask, “How do you think that went?” or “Would you do anything differently next time?” Give them the chance to talk about their missteps. Allowing them to evaluate first relieves you from giving any feedback. It’s the easiest way to engage in a corrective feedback discussion without having to give corrective feedback.

Speak from your perspective and invite dialogue

If you still need to give corrective feedback - even after self-evaluation - then discuss it from your perspective (using “I” and “my” language) and invite dialogue by asking questions along the way. Here is a framework that illustrates it. This is a situation where a direct report fumbled a couple meetings by way of starting late and being unprepared.

 Giving corrective feedback is done best when it takes place in the form of a conversation, a back and forth of perspective sharing - not a directive.

Praising, acknowledging, and correcting past work and behavior are essential leadership and teamwork activities. Doing this well not only improves performance but it creates meaningful, challenging, and rewarding work experiences for all. Talking about feedback before you need to give it, giving positive feedback freely, allowing for self-evaluations and engaging in a conversation are the tips that will put you on that path.

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Until next time!

Amy Drader is a management consultant and credentialed coach with over 20 years’ experience in HR and operations. She knows first-hand the joys and challenges of leading people and is dedicated to helping managers and teams advance their performance. She is the owner of Growth Partners Consulting, a boutique leadership and team development consulting firm that provides customized training and coaching.