Managers: Ask Employees to Give You Feedback – Friday Distraction
(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at Kronos, a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions. Want to create an inspired workforce? Check out Kronos CEO Aron Ain’s new book “Work Inspired: How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work”. Enjoy the article!)
Years ago, I worked with a CEO who, every year, asked the company to give him a performance review. Granted, they were a small company, but the point was that he asked several dozen employees to rate his performance. He felt it was fair. Every other employee got a performance review, why shouldn’t he?
I was reminded of that CEO when I saw this Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos. While the cartoon deals with New Year’s resolutions, how many managers ask their employees for feedback about their performance? If a manager isn’t doing this, maybe they should be. There are a few opportunities where it makes sense.
ONBOARDING: Managers should be asking employees how they like to work and sharing their work preferences as well. I have to admit that my effectiveness as an employee dramatically increased once I figured out my boss’ work style. It allowed me to pitch ideas at the right moment, and that is important.
TRAINING: It’s possible that employee conversations could highlight the need for manager training. Are managers well equipped to support employees? Managers need to be able to identify their own professional growth needs. In addition, they need to feel comfortable asking for development.
ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS: Managers can ask employees, “How can I support you to achieve your goals?” It’s not enough just to set goals with employees. They need to feel like the company will do what’s necessary for the employee to achieve those goals.
PERFORMANCE: Speaking of employee support, managers might need to set goals that are directed at supporting employees. It’s possible that a manager might need to coach an employee through an issue. Or they need to learn a process to better support an employee.
Managers can avoid asking employees for feedback, but it only hurts them in the long-run. Managers have three groups of people they work with every day: their bosses, their peers, and their teams. There might be some thought that the only people you need to make happy are the bosses. But the reality is, a manager who can’t keep employees will attract the attention of the bosses (and not for the right reasons).
And employees who don’t feel they can give their manager feedback, will go find another manager that they can.
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