Stop Training Managers on Feedback, and Start Training Employees | Gartner

The ability to give, receive, and act on feedback is vital to individual and organizational productivity and performance. With this as the backdrop, many organizations have spent the past few years redesigning their approach to performance management to make it simpler and more continuous, where managers and their employees are better equipped to exchange real-time feedback that enables performance and development. Many organizations have also invested in manager capability training that equips managers with the skills needed to provide meaningful feedback that can be acted on by employees. And while it is important for managers to be skilled at giving feedback, it is also important to build employees’ capability in asking for feedback. In this Gartner issue of HRBP Quarterly, there are eight articles–each of which is interesting– but one in which the topic of employee feedback is covered beginning on p.18. On p. 22, a discussion template, by BPX Energy, is provided and can be used by employees to organize their thoughts in preparation for performance check-ins with their manager. It covers conversation elements such as 1) sharing “good news” about things that are going well, 2) a section on MIT’s – Most Important Things to Talk About through the lens of team priorities, individual priorities, and other key activities, 3) “hot” items on the horizon, 4) what else is on my mind–both personal and business, 5) then an overall “how I am doing” section. Given that the coronavirus event has likely impacted the cadence and frequency of performance check-ins, it is a good time for employees and managers alike to use a simple framework like this to ensure that that they are having these critical conversations–especially since this is a time at which feedback and coaching may be needed the most.