Have you ever felt discouraged at work because you don’t know if you’re on the right path? Nobody tells you what you are doing that should stay, nor what needs to be corrected. This is a situation that is connected to the absence of feedback. But what is feedback, anyway?

It is important to understand that feedback is a two-way street, that is, both those who are led need to receive it, as well as those in leadership positions.

Find out in this article which are the common practices of feedback from great managers that are considered highly effective. And start to adopt them in your daily life to improve your performance as a leader.

What is feedback?

Feedback is a response to a stimulus offered as a form of evaluation. It aims to make the interlocutor understand how their behavior was interpreted or received by the other.

Therefore, feedback is used in business administration for better development of its employees, praising what should be kept and pointing out what should be corrected (and, if possible, already suggesting how to improve those points that need correction).

It is nothing more than feedback that allows the listener to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their actions, allowing them to make the necessary adjustments, in addition to reviewing behaviors and enhancing what has been working.

After all, what is at stake is the evolution we talked about earlier, an improvement that can take place on both an individual and organizational scale.

Likewise, the company itself can be the target of feedback from its customers, which generates opportunities for various improvements, both in the solutions it offers and in the way it happens.

Therefore, it is very important to be careful with our body language and the intonation we use, so that the message that we would like to convey is received by the interlocutor.

How feedback helps your business grow

A company is made up of a set of people who work — perform a variety of behaviors — to build a product or develop a service that is delivered to the customer.

This set of behaviors may or may not lead to an expected result by customers, an audience that every company must be aware of to remain competitive and sustainable in the market.

That’s why the importance of collecting feedback to improve the product or service we deliver through the company we work for becomes so evident.

Therefore, feedback is extremely relevant to bring understanding about the blind spots that people have, about the way they act, and the impact of this on their day-to-day work.

And organizations that grow provide more growth and development opportunities for employees. It is a virtuous cycle.

What are the types of feedback?

Feedback: Formal vs. Informal

The term feedback is in two ways: formal and informal. And in this case, there is no right and wrong, no better and worse way. Both are useful ways to give feedback together.

Formal feedback is the traditional one in which the manager calls his subordinate to a meeting, where the points that must reinforce those that you must correct.

Generally, this type of performance appraisal is in larger time intervals, ranging from weekly to semiannual intervals. Therefore, it is a complete assessment of the achievement of the proposed goals and objectives.

The informal, on the other hand, is a daily application, continuously. A good example, in this case, is the one on one methodology.

A good leader will use this type of feedback frequently, keeping the employee motivated and focused on becoming more productive. After all, someone will notice your work.

Feedback: Positive and Negative

Feedback serves both to highlight the positives and to correct the negatives and thus improve them.

The need to reinforce the positives is to ensure that this behavior is repeated. If this feedback is not given, likely, this type of attitude will not be repeated.

To be successful, the leader must explain his perception of the situation and the importance of this action to the entire team. This will make the employee feel like a really useful part of the team.

Negative feedback, on the other hand, aims to demonstrate to the employee that there is harmful behavior. Or it helps them improve at this point. The company should do with care so as not to sound offensive and thus alienate the employee, discouraging him.

It is good that this type of feedback always comes after the positive one. Because that way whoever is receiving this evaluation is less defensive and more willing to listen to what the manager has to say.

What are the benefits of feedback?

Whatever the type, feedback is valuable information that should be used to make important decisions. And we can see this when we analyze the performance of large companies.

The high performance they present is the result of the constant search for evolution and improvement. Use GitScrum’s User Stories to get to know better your consumer demands and get ready for new approaches!

And also the manager, who sees the company achieving better results. Let’s now highlight four important reasons to bet on the feedback culture in your company.

Feedback is an effective listening tool

Whether the feedback is through a survey, the giver needs to know that it provides some value.

Therefore, when seeking opinions from your customers, partners and employees, explain the instrument’s reason for existence.

By being able to convey the benefits of the process to the feedback provider, it becomes an even more powerful improvement tool.

Contributes to team motivation

Don’t see feedback as a problem, but as an opportunity. Conduct the process in a way that positively influences the team’s motivation, as it has this characteristic

Employees like to feel valued. They appreciate both receiving and giving your feedback to contribute to business decisions.

In addition, customer, supplier, and stakeholder feedback is to motivate building better working relationships. And having a tool like GitScrum’s Rock Star Team is a good choice for motivating your team to bring productive incomes and helping increase your clients’ rates.

Improves performance

Anyone who thinks that feedback is just criticism is wrong. Even though there is negative feedback, it can help you make better decisions to improve your business performance.

Ongoing feedback is important across the organization and you must integrate it into its culture and this allows assessments to be aligned with objectives.

From there, the manager can create strategies, develop improvements in products and services, qualify partnerships and relationships, and much more.

The importance of feedback

The company must adopt the feedback so that there is close monitoring of employees. Identifying areas for improvement as quickly as possible. Also, look for future losses to avoid the company losing profits.

That said, as already mentioned, the absence of this assessment compromises the company’s progress, generating negative situations.

Following the same line of thinking, this employee’s loyalty to the leader and the organization compromises the increasing the risk of loss of the employee.

Furthermore, the lack of feedback can lead to inappropriate behavior, as there is a feeling that no one will correct this type of attitude. Therefore, this will have a very negative impact on the work environment.

GitScrum supports your team to better results and effective deliveries!

Set your workflow and board to guide your Agile team, assign Tasks, Subtasks and keep in charge of the whole process evolvements. Allow your Agile team to collaborate.

Reach higher levels of efficiency, productivity, and deliverability with GitScrum. Work focused on prioritizing what’s valuable and tracking your flow to overcome results.

Sign up now and make your team grow together!