April 2025: A Deeper Look at Feedback

Unposed group of creative business people in an open concept office brainstorming their next project.

One of the things I’m hearing a lot from People & Culture leaders is the need to train managers to have better and more frequent performance conversations.

In most cases, what companies think they need to do to address this is to provide more feedback training and stronger guidance for managers to be more clear and direct with employees. But there’s more to it than that if we consider the deeper reasons managers might not be giving clearer guidance. Maybe...

...they’re new managers and don’t know what’s expected of them.
...they think being direct means they have to micromanage their team.
...they worry that giving negative feedback will ruin their relationships.

With these factors in mind, it’s clear that it isn’t enough to just teach managers to give clearer feedback. We have to help them see that they can give more direct guidance when needed, while also continuing to demonstrate care and compassion for team members.

We need to enable managers to go beyond feedback to develop growth-oriented coaching skills that they can adapt to different team members in different situations. And we need to help them see that they can still be authentic and aligned with their own personal values of what it means to be a leader, even as they ramp up the frequency and clarity of their performance coaching.

All of this requires a shift in how we teach feedback skills. Here are a few suggestions for how we can adapt our approach:

Make sure workshops include time for managers to reflect on their values and how they want to be perceived as a leader. Help them see how providing better coaching aligns with their own values as well as with the company’s values, and business goals.
Don’t teach feedback skills in isolation. Train managers on an integrated coaching model that helps them adopt a growth mindset and adapt their approach to different people in different situations, especially given the current pace of change.
Use a model that emphasizes caring as well as clarity. Managers fear that being direct means they have to be harsh and emotionless, but this isn’t true. Train managers on how to be direct while also continuing to practice empathy and compassion.

If you aren’t sure how to incorporate these changes into your current feedback training (or you don’t have any feedback or coaching skills training at all yet) — let’s talk! I’m happy to help you adapt your approach to your company's specific needs.