An Idea for Leaders to Talk Feedback

Here’s an idea for a team-building activity, with an added bonus—

It can start the conversation about how important and welcome performance feedback is.

First, ahead of time, ask each participant to come prepared with examples of two bits of feedback they’ve received in their career:

• One item that seemed harsh at the time, but was very valuable.
• One item that came their way too late to make a difference.

By doing this, you’ll learn about each other and build the team. But you’ll also be making the case to each other that more feedback, positive and negative, will make the team better.

It’s okay to end with a discussion that starts with the simple question:

“Do we give each other enough feedback around here, or should we do even more?”

You can follow up with, “What’s the best time, place, and method to give you feedback?” With that question, you’ll learn more about how people like to communicate.

Give it a try. Please consider reporting back to us on how it went.