Here’s an interesting management controversy.
According to research senior managers are happier and more satisfied with their compensation than other people in the organization. They find themselves more productive and well-compensated. They often feel that their organization’s culture promotes and nurtures employee motivation.
Lower level managers feel their department is well managed, teamwork and cooperation is rewarded and different ideas are valued.
Yet, people in non-management positions don’t share these opinions.
What causes this great divide?
The reason is actually surprisingly simple. Often times, you just don’t know what your staff is thinking about or what they are currently working on. You are not a mind reader, but to get insights into your team, you don’t have to be one.
The truth is, modern workplace lacks two-way feedback. The Globoforce 2011 study found that 65% of employees want more feedback. Often, the only channel of feedback, are the well-known and dreaded performance reviews. More than 92% of performance reviews take place either semi-annually, annually or are never even scheduled in the first place.
Yet, employees that have been recognized experience significantly higher level of motivation. The strong positive correlation between feedback and motivation has been proven for decades. Still, as a management tool, feedback is greatly underused. Over 40% of managers are even self-critical of themselves. They openly admit not giving it enough.
Feedback is a critical component of a successful performance management program, which should be used in conjunction with setting performance goals.
How to bridge this great management divide?
Set performance goals each week and give regular goal-specific feedback. Constructive feedback can go a long way into helping people become self-critical and analyse their performance. In order to make improvements, this is often necessary. Besides, giving timely feedback does not cost anything. It should already be part of your schedule, so take time to give attention to your team. Whether virtually or face-to-face, feedback lends itself to any setting and takes little to prepare for. Most importantly, it pays off as it does help with keeping your team motivated and engaged.
The bigger the team, the more difficult it is to find the time to have one on one conversations with everyone. Giving feedback weekly or even bi-weekly might become impossible. Still, knowledge is everything. Senior managers invest huge resources into harnessing big data in attempt to get to know their markets. Yet, little time and resources are invested into getting to know the people in the company – what ideas and thoughts they might have.
To fix these issues and bridge the divide, embrace team reporting and management software that giving you a platform to excel in
- setting clear goals,
- tracking the performance on these goals,weekly, monthly or even quarterly,
- giving constructive feedback, that is both timely and goal-specific,
- knowing what everyone is working on and the ideas they might have.
There’s no reason not to encourage the best possible job environment. Good way to start is by putting in a stronger effort to timely feedback and clear goals. To help you in this process, incorporate a software. Try Weekdone‘s progress reports. They give you an insight into your team that makes it easier to give feedback and measure performance.