Performance feedback: Positive Feedback Tips for Business Communication
We all love being appreciated.
What we acknowledge gets repeated, and can tip behaviour positively. This is true in human’s as well as animals.
When animal trainers teach an animal to do a trick, such as teaching a monkey to skateboard, they reward every small positive behaviour change. If the monkey is curious (or does not freak out) when they place the board in the cage they give the monkey a piece of juicy mango. When the monkey allows the trainer to move him on the board, they give him a piece of juicy mango. After a very short time of positive reinforcement you have a mango-filled monkey ready to take on a half-pipe on his skateboard.
Our employees and partners are not significantly different.
Imagine creating a delicious valentine dinner for your partner. Going the extra mile, cooking their favourite dishes, getting flowers, putting out candles and soft music. Now imagine their first reaction is “Where is the salt?” Will you ever go to so much trouble again? Or would that type of negative critical Performance feedback annoy you? Would it inspire you to work harder or do less? Most of the time criticism is received rather poorly, specially when it is purely critical.
If their reaction had been an enthusiastic commentary on how much effort you’d gone to, how amazing the table looked, how wonderful the food smelled – would you go the “extra mile” again? Most of us would. Not only that, but we would probably look for other ways to get the same response. Adding more positive behaviour.
At work, and in relationships, when we get acknowledged for effort we tend to repeat the appreciated behaviour and add new positive behaviour. When we get criticised we often think “well why bother” and stop trying as hard, reasoning “It doesn’t matter what I do, I only get criticised, so why bother?”
Positive acknowledgement is the tipping point, it encourages positive behaviour. Criticism, with little or no acknowledgement, encourages apathy and disengagement. Keep your Performance feedback at least Three times positive as you develop your skill at developmental conversations.
Motivate positive behaviour by creating One Clear Message with your acknowledgement.
If you want to learn how to create One Clear Message and keep your Performance feedback three times positive then contact us today!
Richard Riche
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