One Mistake That Can Seriously Derail Your Culture
I worked with a healthcare practice leader recently who struggled with giving feedback.
She was a classic nice-gal personality, who was very nice and fun on the outside (she worked the front desk before becoming a manager), but that niceness got her in trouble because when it came to giving tough feedback. She was just not that effective having hard conversations.
Here’s the pattern of how it played out (let me know if this is familiar):
✅ Everything is going fine in the office
✅ You don’t hear anything for weeks/months
✅ You’ll ask the manager “how are things?” Response: Everything is “good.”
🔥 HAIR ON FIRE - Manager “needs” to fire Sally and reports that doctor/PA/owner wants Sally fired NOW because her attendance has been TERRIBLE for months.
🙃 (Pause for eyebrow raise)
🤦♂️ Feedback given to Sally up to now? None.
If Sally gets fired in this scenario, what happens?
Oh, just a few things:
❌ Sally goes for weeks/months without performing as required
❌ Sally gets upset when she finds out there's a problem
❌ Sally tells her coworkers
❌ Sally voices her complaints on Glassdoor, Indeed, Instagram, etc.
❌ Sally calls HR and/or the owner/doctor/PA
❌ Sally files for unemployment
❌ Sally GETS unemployment
❌ Sally files a discrimination charge
❌ All of the above sucks up your time, money, and energy
Don’t allow leaders to skip feedback and don’t BE the leader who skips feedback. It hurts your culture very quickly and you will get worse performance.
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How To Feedback
There are four steps to feedback
- Ask the person "are you open to some feedback?"
- Share what you noticed
- Tell how it's affecting the business (or you)
- Ask "can you work that?"
It seems simple, but it's so often done poorly or not done at all. It takes practice, but the outcome is so worth it. Leaders who do this get the following outcomes
- More engaged workers
- Better performance
- Better retention
- Less stress
- Happier bosses (if you report to a business owner/partner)
Sounds good, right?
So write down these four steps and practice them on someone who needs feedback. I promise it will be worth your time!
Mike Lyons is an HR professional and consultant in the Austin, TX area specializing in the healthcare industry. He can be found at seasoned-advice.com and on LinkedIn.