Managers often have biases that can get in the way of providing timely, helpful, and honest performance feedback. The three most common biases are: 1) feedback conversations are drawn out, 2) feedback has to be perfect, and 3) feedback can be misunderstood. You obviously don’t want to upset your direct reports. But how others react and respond to your feedback is largely outside of your control. Whether an employee takes the feedback personally, gets defensive, bursts into tears, rejects the feedback, questions it, or accepts it is based on many extenuating factors. However, you should strive to make your role in the conversation as helpful and productive as possible. This includes making your positive intent with the feedback clear, clarifying what you are observing and requesting, being specific about the impact, focusing on strengths, developing actionable next steps, and delivering feedback with care and curiosity.
