Performance feedback: use the Three times ratio to motivate growth
The three-times-positive zone helps your team flourish
Business Performance feedback tips:
The Tipping Point. For teams and individuals, is a Positivity Ratio of at least three times (3:1). Every interaction impacts your positive to negative ratio. Your non-verbal messages are just as important as verbal messages. Follow the 3-2-1 feedback technique to improve your ratio and add these extra tips:
Positive non-verbal feedback counts! A simple smile, or making warm eye contact has an enormous impact on the positivity of an environment.
Pause. Take a breath. In an emotional situation take a 5 minute break to calm down, and avoid responding out of heightened emotions.
Praise liberally and immediately. Pay attention, and go out of your way to find specific reasons to recognise people’s effort. Look for behaviours that feed a positive culture. This can be immensely powerful.
Create a reserve. Build up a reserve of goodwill by praising immediately, often and specifically. In times of ongoing stress and negativity (e.g. economic difficulties) go the extra mile and find additional opportunities for positive interaction. Through regularly focusing on the positivity of the environment you can build up your team’s ability to deal with negative experiences and interactions. Not every day goes well and we need a reserve for “bad” days.
Energy and Enthusiasm are contagious. Genuine enthusiasm is one of the most positive and contagious of emotions, and spreads positive emotions through a group fast. Positive Performance feedback changes the way it is perceived.
Celebrate each success. Celebrate every time the team scores a victory. This helps embed the right behaviours. Include the entire team in the celebration.
Operate inside the three-times-positive zone and your team will flourish, achieving a state of flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book “Flow” talked about how the flow state drives high employee performance and productivity. Flow is the state where team members feel absorbed by their tasks, time flies by as they work, creativity thrives and productivity increases dramatically. Fall outside this zone and your team will become sluggish, work together less effectively, and easily get caught up in the pull of a downward spiral of negativity which stunts productivity and success.
Remember: Negative experiences are expensive, they cancel out three positive experiences.
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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