Most managers know to spread around the "attaboy's" and the "good jobs" as they see employees doing the right thing. Doing this is useful and usually reinforces generally valuable behaviors. But why limit yourself?

In the last newsletter issue we examined several mistakes you could make in giving feedback. Since feedback can be such a powerful tool, it's vitally important to get it right. Your company's growth and stability might depend on it. In this issue, we'll look at nine different ways to give your employees valuable feedback to improve their day-to-day performance.

The three purposes of feedback are:

1. To reinforce or affirm.
2. To correct.
3. To remind about rules, policies, or procedures

In turn, each of these can be delivered at different times relative to doing a job:

• After the job has just been completed
  
• During the performance of the job
  
• Before doing the job

Would you like to see some examples?

To Reinforce

After - "Good job. See how your follow-up of a question turned what seemed like an objection into an opportunity to show the customer a benefit she would enjoy?"

During - You could use a smile or nod while observing your employee in the middle of doing something right. Being noticed is a powerful motivator in its own right, and when that notice is positive, you can imagine the results.

Before - Before a sales call - "Remember how well you did on the Ajax call on Tuesday? Just do the same good job of probing and listening again this time. You might get an order as big as the one from Ajax."

To Correct

After - "I think we both know you missed an opportunity there. When Mrs. Johnson asked how much more it would cost to take a step up in quality, you could have showed her all the added benefits and then showed her that the difference in cost was tiny compared to what she would get."

During - "I think you'll find it's much faster to enter all of each customer's information into the database before moving on to the next one. Right now you're switching data entry screens so often you're losing quite a bit of time."

Before - "Do you remember what went wrong when you did the pre-inventory prep last month? I'm sure you learned not to go through that headache again."

To Remind about Rules and Procedures

After - "I'm sure that didn't go as well as you wanted. It might help if you refreshed yourself on the policy for giving time estimates to customers. Do you think the outcome might have changed if you had followed our normal procedure?"

During - "Do you see how long it's taking to count each section? What were the four steps you learned for section counts?"

Before - "Before you start to close for the day, let's go over what you'll be doing. What are the six steps for closing out?"

As you can see, feedback can come in many forms and can be delivered under a variety of circumstances. If you're not using feedback to its full potential, you could be squandering numerous opportunities to develop your employees.

Today, before you leave for home, try to find one opportunity to use each of these nine powers of feedback. You'll be glad you did.

A Few More Notes on Feedback

• Self-talk, the things we say silently to ourselves, can be a powerful use of feedback. Athletes constantly use self-talk to remind themselves that they've reached important milestones on the way to their goals. You can help yourself reach your goals with the same technique.
• When you have the respect of your employees, your words carry a lot of weight. Use them wisely but not sparingly. Praise, recognition, and appropriate feedback should be daily deposits in your relationship account with each employee.
• When you use corrective feedback, don't try too hard to "soften the blow." Be honest, direct, and then move.
• The idea of using feedback before a repeat performance is used every day by champion athletes and their coaches. They remind themselves they've made this putt, hit this pitcher, run this fast before. And they recall how they did it. Learn from them.