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HBR.org | Why Feedback Can Make Work More Meaningful 

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HBR.org | Why Feedback Can Make Work More Meaningful 

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Why Feedback Can Make Work More Meaningful

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Managers have long been told that feedback is critical to organizational success. They attend training after training to learn how to give effective feedback in order to manage underperformers and ensure that employees are on the right track with their work. Managers also learn that feedback is a necessary ingredient for a company culture built on trust, accountability, and compassion. But what’s often missing from the conversation about the importance of feedback is the real reason why it matters: Feedback is a critical tool for helping employees find deeper meaning in their day-to-day work. This article covers three reasons why feedback can create more meaningful work, and how you as a manager can make sure your feedback conversations are designed for maximum meaning.

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HBR: High-Performers Need Feedback, Too 

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HBR: High-Performers Need Feedback, Too 

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High performers are essential to a team’s success, often producing significantly more output than their peers. But research shows that they often receive lower-quality feedback. Managers tend to focus on lower performers, neglecting the development needs of high performers. High performers tend to thrive on feedback and are motivated by it. To engage and retain high performers, managers should provide constructive feedback, highlighting areas of growth. It is advisable to avoid exaggerated or fixed-mindset language, which can be demotivating. When giving feedback, focus on skills and behaviors instead of personality traits. Moreover, be mindful of reinforcing negative stereotypes, which can affect underrepresented groups more profoundly. Finally, map out clear paths for growth, offering specific guidance on how high performers can advance.

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HBR: Good Feedback is a Two-Way Conversation

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HBR: Good Feedback is a Two-Way Conversation

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Executive Summary

Rather than relying on a feedback hierarchy, managers should consider a partnership model that distributes power and increases two-way conversation with their employees. It's a humbler approach to managing people that focuses on asking questions, not giving orders. The author calls it the difference between "window gazing" and "mirror holding."

"Window gazing" is a process of see-and-tell. Ask two people gazing out the same window to describe what they see, and you're likely to get a pair of perspectives that are substantively different but remain equally valid. Not so in the context of work, where the imbalance of power allows only one view - the manager's - to prevail. That changes with "mirror holding," a dramatic shift in the tone and trajectory of feedback conversations. Instead of telling their employees what to see, managers guide them where to look. They engage employees in thoughtful conversation about their current strengths, future goals, and how to bring those elements closer in line.

Image Source/Getty Images

Getting others to accept our feedback can prove challenging, especially when it's critical. Worried that their feedback may lead to hurt feelings or diminished productivity, managers resort to face-saving techniques like the "praise sandwich" that end up doing more harm than good. The result is a tenuous feedback culture built largely upon evasion, confusion, and self-delusion.

This dynamic can change with a better message - and a bolder mindset. Based on my work with leadership teams, I've found that when performance conversations are powered by partnership, the landscape shifts. Not only do managers enjoy better relationships with their teams, but their feedback may even produce greater joy, not fear.

Rather than relying on a feedback hierarchy, managers should consider a partnership model that distributes power and increases two-way conversation with their employees - leading to a more authentic and revealing feedback experience that fosters trust, flows with the rhythm of work, and sets the conditions for positive, lasting change. It's a humbler approach to managing people that focuses on asking questions, not giving orders. I call it the difference between "window gazing" and "mirror holding."

"Window gazing" is a process of see-and-tell. Ask two people gazing out the same window to describe what they see, and you're likely to get a pair of perspectives that are substantively different but remain equally valid. Not so in the context of work, where the imbalance of power allows only one view - the manager's - to prevail. This limited picture of performance is often riddled with subjectivity and bias, as managers ignore, distort, and overlook details related to an employee's work. That view becomes muddled over time, often resembling a "forgetting curve" punctuated by a sharp initial drop, followed by a slow and steady loss. While managers fumble over the past, employees are forced to sit in judgement, stuck in a present they can't wait to end.

That changes with "mirror holding," which offers a dramatic shift in the tone and trajectory of feedback conversations. Instead of telling their employees what to see, managers guide them where to look. They engage employees in thoughtful conversation about their current strengths, future goals, and how to bring those elements closer in line. Rather than offer directives, managers ask probing questions that help them better understand the picture of work and entrust their employees with opportunities to shape the way forward.

In my work with leaders at all levels, I've seen the power of a humbler approach. Mirror holding enlarges employees' perspectives while expanding their opportunities for dialogue and reflection. It relieves managers of the prescriptive and often uncomfortable rituals of feedback - a hasty run-through of recent accomplishments, followed by a much longer list of deficits. And it transforms managers into people champions who actively promote the growth and agency of their employees. If the sign of a good leader is someone who creates other leaders, then mirror holding is the mark of transformational leadership.

Making the transition from window gazing to mirror holding takes deliberate practice, but it's something every leader can do with the right amount of effort and intent. Here are a few recommendations for developing more mirror-holding in your touchpoint conversations:

Ask "hero questions"

Unlock the potential of your employees by asking "hero questions" that focus on their strengths and stories of success. These questions cut to the heart of employee experience - how individuals perceive their competencies and contributions.

Some of my favorite hero questions include:

Tell me about a time this month you felt energized.

What have you learned about yourself from working on this project?

What strengths have you found most useful on this project?

Who have you recently helped, and what difference did it make in their work and yours?

Asking employees to look back at these peak moments helps managers better understand what it took to get there - and, more importantly, what it will take to get there again.

Diagnose challenges

When employees hint to a challenge, pay attention to their cues. Is this person holding back? What does that individual's body language and tone of voice convey? This process of scanning and listening can alert managers to the unseen emotional toll of work and how it is affecting performance. Try to uncover the employee's perception of the challenge and how to address it with these prompts:

What outcome are you trying to achieve?

What is happening? Why do you think it's happening?

What have you tried so far? How have you handled similar challenges in the past?

Have you tried to resolve this challenge? What happened as a result?

Helping others recognize work challenges can provide the first measure of relief. When issues are brought into the open, both sides gain clarity and can begin working towards a shared solution.

Shape the path

If performance is a journey, then it's the manager's job to help shape a path towards commitment. Once employees suggest a way forward, managers should guide their next steps. This steers the conversation towards actionable progress, making feedback more concrete. Try closing the feedback exchange with questions like:

How do you think you'll act on this?

What is holding you back from achieving your goals?

What would happen if you tried this?

How can I help you recreate the conditions of your success?

The best feedback helps others understand their strengths and provides the encouragement and guidance to build on those strengths. Mirror holders set the conditions for positive and lasting change. Making that small adjustment in your mindset can produce a world of difference in your message - and just might help others see themselves in an entirely new way.

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Executive Summary Rather than relying on a feedback hierarchy, managers should consider a partnership model that distributes power and increases two-way conversation with their employees. It's a humbler approach to managing people that focuses on asking questions, not giving orders. The author calls it the difference between "window gazing" and "mirror holding."

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Feedback Microlearning (Optimized for Mobile)

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Feedback Microlearning (Optimized for Mobile)

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Dr. LeeAnn Renninger: The Secret to Giving GREAT Feedback

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Dr. LeeAnn Renninger: The Secret to Giving GREAT Feedback

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The secret to giving great feedback | The Way We Work, a TED series

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LifeLabs Learning: Feedback Delivered Three Different Ways

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LifeLabs Learning: Feedback Delivered Three Different Ways

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Gene Auriemma: Building Trust & Giving Feedback

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Gene Auriemma: Building Trust & Giving Feedback

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The Triple Filter Test | Socrates | Feedback

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The Triple Filter Test | Socrates | Feedback

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Is it good?

Is it true?

Is it useful?

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The Triple Filter Test: Can you do it? Unlock the Wisdom of Socrates

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Metallica: Navigating Egos & Giving Criticism

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Metallica: Navigating Egos & Giving Criticism

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Harvard Business School | Why People Crave Feedback - And Why We’re Afraid to Give It

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Harvard Business School | Why People Crave Feedback - And Why We’re Afraid to Give It

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Why People Crave Feedback—and Why We’re Afraid to Give It

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How am I doing? Research by Francesca Gino and colleagues shows just how badly employees want to know. Is it time for managers to get over their discomfort and get the conversation going at work?

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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Whack-a-mole - Moles appear one at a time, hit only the correct ones to win.

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WSJ: The Performance Review is Dying. Make Way For a Fire Hose of Feedback

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WSJ: The Performance Review is Dying. Make Way For a Fire Hose of Feedback

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Fortune: Here's the Proof That Low-Quality Feedback is Driving Employee Retention Down

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Fortune: Here's the Proof That Low-Quality Feedback is Driving Employee Retention Down

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While the U.S. economy continues to add jobs, fewer of them are corporate. In this climate, when employees leave, their roles are often not backfilled. Retaining the team you have is more important than ever-and poor feedback practices are a major driver of high employee attrition rates.

At Textio, we investigated what's driving all this attrition. Our comprehensive report involved surveying corporate employees across industries and looking at the relationship between the feedback they received in formal performance reviews and employee retention.

We clearly established that poor or insufficient feedback leads to employee attrition. Additionally, our finding shows that not all feedback is equal-and that not all employees are equal in the feedback they receive.

Employees who don't get clear feedback quit

According to this year's survey, 38% of people are either actively considering leaving their current workplace or have already ventured into interviews elsewhere.

Some 61% of respondents who plan to stay within the organization agree that they understand what their manager expects in order to give them their next promotion. Among people planning to leave their organizations, only 21% do.

While people indicated a variety of reasons for considering new roles, ranging from money to greater flexibility to relocation, several of the most common reasons cited tie directly to the feedback people get on the job. In fact, "insufficient feedback" was specifically named by 17% of respondents as the primary reason they're looking for other roles. Numerous other participants cited feedback-adjacent reasons, such as "feeling underappreciated" or "lack of growth opportunities."

Not all feedback is equally effective

The survey data shows a strong connection between the feedback an employee receives and their decision to stay or leave their organization. We also analyzed a performance review data set to see if the same patterns hold. As it turns out, people who received unactionable feedback were significantly less likely to be in the organization a year later.

To explore this, we looked at the performance reviews of a large, international enterprise organization across a variety of roles. The data set contains performance reviews for more than 13,000 employees across two annual review cycles. Because we have two years of data, we can see whether an employee in the Year 1 data set is also included in the Year 2 data set. In other words, for each employee, we can see the quality of their written performance feedback, as well as their retention or attrition outcome the following year.

People who received low-quality feedback were more likely to leave the organization than people who received more actionable feedback. What's more, this impact is causal, not just correlational: Our analysis controlled for potentially confounding factors such as numerical performance rating and employee tenure. People who received low-quality feedback were 63% more likely to leave their organizations than everyone else. This held true whether they were high, middling, or low performers.

Low-quality, unactionable feedback is particularly problematic when you consider its prevalence: 50% of the people in our data set received at least some feedback that was not actionable.

And that's not all. Shying away from giving direct feedback also causes employees to quit. Even when feedback is provided, it may be provided in conflict-avoidant and indirect ways. The practice of hedging, where the feedback provider couches their intended feedback in less direct language, is common.

The use of problematic hedging language is pervasive, with a third of people in this year's data set receiving this kind of feedback. Consider the difference between telling your report, "You'll have to finish the rough draft this week," and, "You might consider finishing the rough draft this week." When managers use hedging language to make an ask that the employee is meant to understand as a requirement, they dilute the message.

"I think" was by far the most common phrase used in hedging feedback. By introducing feedback with an "I think" statement, the manager is communicating that their point of view might just be a matter of opinion and that they might not be fully committed to it. This is problematic even in positive feedback, as the manager inadvertently communicates doubt about the praise they're giving. For example, by saying "I think you did a good job on that presentation" rather than just stating that the report did a good job.

It matters. People who get performance reviews containing "I think" hedging statements were 29% more likely to leave the company within a year than everyone else.

High-quality feedback isn't distributed equally

Feedback matters for employee retention, but not all demographic groups are equally likely to get high-quality feedback. Just as in last year's report, women of all races and people of color of all genders received lower-quality feedback, and less feedback overall, than everyone else.

For instance:

83% of men said that they understand what's required to earn their next promotion-in contrast to 71% of women, non-binary, and transgender people.

Only 54% of Asian people said they understand what's required to earn their next promotion.

Black employees get 26% more unactionable feedback than non-Black employees, despite only receiving 79% as much feedback overall.

Taken in aggregate, written feedback also reinforces problematic stereotypes. Men were twice as likely as women to be called "ambitious"-and women twice as likely to be deemed "helpful. "

Latinx people were described as "passionate" at double the rate of white people. Meanwhile, white people were twice as likely as Asian people to be described as "easy to work with."

In other words, the groups with the highest attrition rates from corporate workplaces also systematically receive the lowest-quality feedback. If you don't invest in growing your people, they leave.

These issues have persisted long enough, with such little improvement, that states and cities are now exploring promotion transparency laws that will require organizations to ensure fairness and equity throughout their employee growth and promotion process.

Good management and feedback processes will soon have the same legislative support that pay transparency has brought workers. And we already know how that is playing out- 91% of job seekers, regardless of seniority or industry, now say that including salary ranges in a job post would affect their decision to apply. It's only a matter of time before employees expect the same transparency in the promotion process.
Kieran Snyder is the CEO of Textio. Mallun Yen is the founder and CEO of the Operator Collective.
More must-read commentary published by Fortune:

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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We analyzed 2 years of performance reviews for 13,000 workers. Here's the proof that low-quality feedback is driving employee retention down

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Vague feedback is particularly problematic when you consider its prevalence: 50% of employees received at least some feedback that was not actionable.

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We all receive feedback from time to time. But are we able to process it and make the most of it? Not always. Processing feedback goes far beyond listening to it in the moment and implementing it; it involves continuous reflection, conversation, and practice. While much of this happens because of th…

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Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

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playful pop song. Listen and make your own with Suno.

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HBR: How to Encourage Your Team to Give you Honest Feedback

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HBR: How to Encourage Your Team to Give you Honest Feedback

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If you're a manager, it's not enough to be giving feedback to your direct reports. It's part of your job to solicit feedback from your direct reports as well. As much as you might believe that you know your strengths and weaknesses well, without external self-awareness - an understanding of how what you say and do impacts others - you're unlikely to improve the habits, behaviors, and practices that may be holding you (or others) back.

This external self-awareness comes from asking others (especially those who report to you) to share how they experience you. How else will you know what you should keep doing and what you should be doing differently?

Nevertheless, you might find that your colleagues are reluctant to give you the feedback you need to improve, or even sustain, what's working. Here are five common barriers you might face in getting helpful feedback from your direct reports, and how to address them so that you can gain the insights you need.

1. Worrying about whether you're even open to feedback.

Far too often, team members expect to be given downward feedback, but unless they're explicitly invited to offer upward feedback, they won't know that's even on the table.

What to do: Tell your direct report that you're not only open to feedback, but that you want and expect it. One way to frame it is to share that self-improvement is a personal and professional commitment you've made to yourself - and ask for help meeting your commitment. Ask, "Would you please help me keep the commitment I've made to myself?" That way, your direct report can view their feedback as helping you make good on a promise you've made to yourself.

2. Apprehension about "doing it right."

Giving feedback adeptly is a skill that needs to be learned. If your employees haven't learned how to do it well - perhaps because they haven't had access to training, practice, or role models - then they may resist doing it at all.

What to do: Let your direct report know that feedback is a skill best learned through practice - a great development opportunity for themselves - and that you'd like to give them the opportunity to practice with you. Assure them that they don't have it do it "right." They just have to show a willingness to try, and to try to get better over time. It can also be helpful to remind them that learning any new skill goes through four stages:

1. Unconscious incompetence ("I don't know that I don't know how to do this well.")

2. Conscious incompetence ("Now I know that I don't know how to do this well.")

3. Conscious competence ("Now I know that I do know how to do this well.")

4. Unconscious competence ("I am doing this well without even thinking about it.")

Remember to acknowledge and celebrate their skill development as it progresses.

3. Fear of retaliation.

Let's face it: You're in a position of power. You have access to resources that are important to your direct report. They may worry that giving you feedback could interfere with their future opportunities. In addition, in some cultures, giving feedback "up" the hierarchy is simply not done. It would be seen as disrespectful and insubordinate. Be aware that these cultural norms can be a significant barrier.

What to do: Demonstrate empathy and humility. Try saying something like, "I know that it can feel uncomfortable to give feedback to someone who has a say in what you work on, your career advancement, etc. I have had the same concerns in giving feedback to my boss. Let me reassure you that I see your willingness to give me helpful feedback - even if it's negative - as one of your professional assets. I know that I can get better, and I want to."

4. Concern about hurting your feelings.

You're only human, right? And feedback - especially when not delivered skillfully - can activate feelings of social rejection. Your direct report may be understandably worried about hurting you and the relationship.

What to do: Demonstrate your self-awareness by taking the lead in giving yourself constructive feedback first, which can mitigate their fears. You might say, "I know that I tend to be slow and methodical in my work, often prioritizing accuracy over action. Others have shared with me that they find my style hard to work with, especially when they're facing a tight deadline. I'd like to get better at that. Would you share what you've experienced?" And then, once you have them talking, you can ask, "And is there anything else I could be working to improve right now that would make your work easier?"

5. Suspicion that nothing will change as a result of the feedback.

Giving feedback is hard, but giving feedback that doesn't result in anything improving is even harder. Soliciting feedback without addressing it and taking action on it quickly erodes trust, as it undermines your sincerity and reliability.

What to do: Tell your direct report what you plan to do with the feedback they give you. This might range from, "I appreciate you telling me this - and I'm not sure I can address it right now. Here's why..." to "This is very helpful, and I am going to take action to change this behavior. Here's my plan..." And in both cases, keep actively, openly, and assertively inviting them to give you feedback.

One final thought: As much as you might believe that you have created safe and welcoming conditions for your direct report to give you feedback, don't penalize them for not doing so. The complexity of the power imbalances, the differences between what you and they might consider "safe and welcoming," as well as prior negative experiences they may have had giving feedback in the past (that may have nothing to do with you) may make this harder for them than you've imagined.

Nevertheless, do what you can to make sure you're getting the feedback you need to grow and succeed. In the words of business executive Pamela Gill Alabaster: "Continuous learning leads to continuous improvement. Commit yourself to advancing your knowledge, skills, and expertise...Be a lifelong student."

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How to Encourage Your Team to Give You Honest Feedback

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Far too often, team members expect to be given downward feedback, but unless they're explicitly invited to offer upward feedback, they won't know that it's even an option. As a manager, it's your job to ask your employees for feedback on your own performance.

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Ted | How to Get Better at Receiving Feedback

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Ted | How to Get Better at Receiving Feedback

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This post is part of TED's "How to Be a Better Human" series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from people in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.

For leaders at any level, the single best way to grow is to lead and then get feedback. It is to act and interact with your team and learn what can be improved upon through feedback. Feedback is a better teacher than books, academic journal articles, trainings, speeches and even TED Talks.

And I say this as a writer who translates research from academic journal articles while giving trainings, speeches and TED Talks.

After you reach a more senior role, people tend to minimize any unpleasant or less-than-positive feedback or don't want to offer you any constructive criticism at all.

But there's a problem with receiving feedback once you reach a more senior role. The nature of feedback changes - people tend to minimize any unpleasant or less-than-positive feedback or don't want to offer you any constructive criticism at all. And your response to feedback may also change; you may not internalize feedback because you don't see the whole picture or you could get defensive.

Here, I'll outline four steps you can take to get better at receiving feedback in order to grow as a leader and grow as a team.

Step #1: Start with thank you

The very first response to give when someone gives you feedback should be a response of gratitude. Don't get defensive. Don't offer to explain what they might not understand. And don't even jump further into what you should change (we'll get there). Instead, take time to offer your thanks for the gift you just received - the gift of feedback.

While feedback is a gift, it's even more so a risk. When a team member speaks up to offer you feedback, they're taking a risk with how you'll respond.

Why should you do this? Because while feedback is a gift, it's even more so a risk. When a team member speaks up to offer you their feedback, especially critical or constructive feedback, they're taking a risk with how you'll respond. They're risking potential damage to the relationship or retaliation. Or they're risking wasting their time by giving feedback to someone who won't receive it. Starting with "thank you" lets the other person know that risk was worth it and you will listen.

Step #2: Restate what you heard

Whether it's praise, criticism or some other type of feedback, take the time to restate to the person giving it what you heard them say. Just a quick "What I hear you saying is _____" can have a powerful effect on your conversation.

Restating their feedback lets them know that their opinion matters and makes it more likely you'll get additional feedback in the future from this person.

Restating the feedback does two things. The first is that is checks your own understanding of the message, so you don't risk taking in the wrong lessons. But more importantly, restating the feedback you heard allows the other person to feel heard .

It lets them know you were really listening and - just like the first step - that this conversation isn't a waste. It lets them know that their opinion matters and makes it more likely you'll get additional feedback in the future from this person (and anyone else they talk to about this conversation).

Step #3: Mention what you're changing

Listening to feedback by alone doesn't bring about growth; it's only when feedback is used to figure how to act differently (or start or stop acting) that growth actually happens. And if you're going to be making changes as a result of the feedback, why not share those changes with the person or people who helped you discover what changes to make?

Once you've figured out how to apply feedback, be sure to share it with those who gave it.

However, you don't need to tell those who give you feedback what you're changing right away. It's OK to circle back later on, re-thank them for their feedback, and then mention what you're changing. But once you've figured out how to apply feedback, be sure to share it with those who gave it.

Step #4: Seek out more feedback

Feedback isn't a one-and-done intervention; it's a process. You're growing, changing and improving all the time - and to do that you'll need more feedback.

So make sure you're developing a habit of seeking out more feedback. When you finish stating what you'll be changing, ask if you can set a date with that person or group to re-evaluate how the change is going.

Not only will you get better at receiving feedback over time, but people will also feel more comfortable giving it to you.

This does two things. First, it will guarantee more feedback at a later date. But more importantly, it will signal how open you truly are to receiving feedback and make it more likely you get unsolicited feedback at any time. And unsolicited feedback from those you trust is often the most potent.

Feedback is an ongoing process, and it may be difficult the first or second time you're in a feedback conversation to meaningfully hit all four steps. But it will get easier over time. Not only will you get better at receiving feedback, but people will also feel more comfortable giving it to you.
This article originally appeared on DavidBurkus.com and has been adapted with the author's permission. Watch his TEDxUniversityofNevada Talk here:

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This post is part of TED's "How to Be a Better Human" series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from people in the TED community; browse through all the posts here. For leaders at any level, the single best way to grow is to lead and then get feedback.

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When Your Boss Gives You Bad Feedback, Badly

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HBR: When Your Boss Gives You Bad Feedback, Badly

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HBR: When Your Boss Gives You Bad Feedback, Badly

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When Your Boss Gives You Bad Feedback, Badly

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It’s difficult to manage your feelings when getting feedback that feels too harsh, overly nice, or somehow dishonest. We all struggle with feedback, so extend a little grace to yourself for having strong emotions, and to the other person for initiating a difficult conversation. The authors present t…

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HBR: How Managers Can Make Feedback a Team Habit

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HBR: How Managers Can Make Feedback a Team Habit

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How Managers Can Make Feedback a Team Habit

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The flow of feedback is important for everyone, but all too often, it ends up feeling forced, formal, and infrequent. As a result, people’s development stalls and team growth is stifled. To overcome these challenges, managers can take the lead on creating a shared understanding of what feedback is f…

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Listen to this episode from The LeaderLab powered by LifeLabs Learning on Spotify. When defensiveness shows up, conversations shut down. Learn the SuperLeader skill that will help you connect instead.Want to dig a little deeper?

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Gallup: How Fast Feedback Fuels Performance

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Gallup: How Fast Feedback Fuels Performance

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by Denise McLain and Bailey Nelson

Story Highlights

Employees who receive regular feedback are more engaged

Effective feedback is timely and relevant

Great managers use feedback to create a development-focused culture

"How am I doing?" "Did that go well?" "What could I do differently next time?"
Employees are hungry for feedback from their leaders, managers and peers. They want to gain insights that advance their abilities and future potential. And more than ever, feedback is pivotal for engaging employees: Gallup data show that when employees strongly agree they received "meaningful feedback" in the past week, they are almost four times more likely than other employees to be engaged.

Bar graph showing that when employees strongly agree they received "meaningful feedback" in the past week, they are almost four times more likely than other employees to be engaged.

Yet with business moving at warp speed, it's tempting to move on to the next task or objective after a client presentation or a busy shift. But meaningful feedback doesn't hinder performance -- it fuels it.

The operative word here is meaningful: Not all feedback is equal. In Gallup's experience with clients, feedback is often a lengthy employee-manager discussion that requires pre-work for managers to rate the employee's performance over recent months. In today's fast-paced world, this scenario is impractical, ineffective and difficult to execute.

A more meaningful -- and approachable -- way to give feedback is quickly and frequently, which is why organizations might find it helpful to rebrand their approach to "Fast Feedback."

The Fast Feedback approach makes giving feedback easier and more straightforward for managers, who often find the activity intimidating and overwhelming. When feedback is easy and commonplace, everyone can feel at ease and walk away knowing what and how to improve. And as Fast Feedback becomes part of the norm, a culture of meaningful feedback -- the ultimate goal -- will emerge.

The benefits of a culture of meaningful feedback are numerous. A work environment where feedback is fast and frequent:

Supports agility: Fast Feedback energizes employees and enables teams to make real-time, on-the-fly performance adjustments that create a competitive edge.

Inspires excellence: Employees are 3.6 times more likely to strongly agree that they are motivated to do outstanding work when their manager provides daily (vs. annual) feedback.

Retains talent: Employees today are looking for purpose-driven work and a manager who acknowledges and accelerates their progress.

In our experience, many organizations know continuous feedback is best but struggle with activating the ongoing behaviors needed to achieve it at scale. So, they stick to traditional approaches (like annual reviews) in which managers delay feedback until they find the "right time."

Leaders can address this problem by cultivating a culture where feedback is frequently and effectively exchanged. Our work with clients reveals the smartest first step: empowering your managers to give inspiring feedback.

The Manager's Central Role in a Feedback Culture

Managers who continually listen, ask questions, gain context and promote dialogue have progressed to a coaching mindset. These best-in-class managers use ongoing conversations to deliver energizing feedback that celebrates successes and calibrates performance.

How Managers Can Give Meaningful and Fast Feedback

Based on Gallup's science, here's what distinguishes feedback that's time-consuming from Fast Feedback that drives outcomes.

Meaningful feedback is frequent.
Effective feedback has an expiration date. Feedback should be a common occurrence -- for most jobs, a few times per week. People remember their most recent experiences best, so feedback is most valuable when it occurs immediately after an action.

Managers should maintain an ongoing dialogue with employees -- using conversations that offer timely, in-the-moment feedback that's inspiring, instructive and actionable. For example, a manager might conclude a team meeting with a comment about how much they appreciated the team coming to the meeting with well-thought-out ideas on the new initiative. The manager's comment highlights the benefits of the team's preparation and suggests strategies for making the next meeting even more efficient.

Best-in-class managers use ongoing conversations to deliver energizing feedback that celebrates successes and calibrates performance.

The best managers also prioritize active listening, making feedback a two-way street rather than simply declaring their subjective observations. When a manager asks an employee about their perspective, the employee is more likely to own their part, become an outstanding collaborator and do what's best for the organization.

Meaningful feedback is focused.
Ineffective feedback is vague and doesn't inform change. For instance, ranking all team members on the same general measures won't capture each individual's unique strengths and day-to-day work.

The best managers individualize feedback to employees' natural talents and performance needs. They ensure feedback is relevant to the individual's contributions and the organization's purpose -- showing employees how their day-to-day efforts influence the big picture.

When feedback is focused, it feels fair and authentic to employees because it's reflective of their contributions and within their ability to control. And by clarifying expectations, managers help employees aim their efforts toward the right goals and KPIs.

Meaningful feedback is future-oriented.
Harping on an employee's prior blunders is anything but motivating. Managers can inspire growth by emphasizing the current moment and what's ahead -- recognizing employees' accomplishments and removing roadblocks for tomorrow. What can we do to get even better? How can we prepare for the future? What did you learn from this phase?

That's not to say managers shouldn't acknowledge the past: Reflection facilitates learning. Top talent workers aren't looking only for "feel-good" feedback -- they want to be pushed to be their best.

The best managers individualize feedback to employees' natural talents and performance needs.

Managers can address shortcomings in a constructive manner by focusing on discernable behaviors rather than employees' characteristics. They must keep employee development as their goal.

Here's an example:

Unhelpful feedback: "That client presentation you gave last quarter really hurt us ... honestly, I'm not sure we can recover the relationship."

Meaningful feedback (right after the presentation or later that day): "How do you think the presentation went? I noticed that the client had a few questions that seemed to indicate they were not following along. What can we do next time to overcome that?"

Leaders Need to Create a Development-Focused, Performance-Oriented Culture

Here are three actions leaders should take today to create an atmosphere in which meaningful feedback resounds:
1. Transform your managers into coaches.
Coaching is a unique skill set that managers need to cultivate. Fortunately, the right manager development demystifies coaching and evolves a manager's mindset -- giving them exactly what they need to become coaching aficionados who provide excellent feedback.
2. Adjust your management practices and performance metrics.
It's time to abandon annual reviews in favor of the five coaching conversations that are scientifically shown to improve performance. Leaders should assess their current performance management approach, then implement the necessary changes to shift to feedback-rich performance development.
3. Become a feedback evangelist.
In a development-focused work culture, feedback isn't a one-way, top-down event. Individuals, managers and leaders should all give and receive feedback -- showing appreciation for one another's efforts through an honest, open, ongoing dialogue. Peer-to-peer feedback strengthens relationships and cross-departmental collaboration.

Leaders should take the first step: Model the behaviors you want your managers to display by sharing "Fast Feedback" with them. Help your managers provide meaningful feedback by prioritizing manager development. Then watch as your feedback culture accelerates workplace productivity and engagement.

Build a development-focused culture that values feedback.

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Learn more about the impact engaged employees have on an organization.

Author(s)

Denise McLain is a Senior Strategic Consultant and Practice Expert at Gallup.
Iseult Morgan contributed to this article.

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Employees crave feedback, and they don't need a special occasion to hear it. Learn how to give meaningful feedback in a few minutes.

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HBR: How to Protect Your Team from a Toxic Work Culture

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HBR: How to Protect Your Team from a Toxic Work Culture

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They made their teams feel seen, heard, appreciated, and supported, and as a consequence, their teams delivered better results. While these conversations are tough to have and often take a great deal of courage to conduct, but for any new or aspiring leader, they are essential to initiate during your one-on-ones.

Every manager should keep an eye on what they need from people to stay on track with their larger team goals, but they should also stop and ask what their teams need to deliver on those goals. They should also learn about their team's fears and insecurities and be courageous enough to talk about their own.

Most people want to win, to learn, to feel of service, etc. But taken to an extreme, each of these core motivators can be derailing. Managers can motivate people when they tap into what employees really want, but they have to make sure employees don't get too much of a good thing.

If managers exclusively focus on what needs to get done, they'll make the mistake of asking people to perform tasks beyond their competency. Yes, pushing people to grow is good, but setting them up to fail is not. Understand what people are really good at and place them in the right positions. This will increase productivity that only comes when people are using their greatest talents.

Managers who connect the work of employees to the broader purpose and mission of the company are more likely to retain and motivate employees. By getting curious and having these conversations, managers can help their teams put the role they play into larger context and feel less like a nameless cog in the machine.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a staggering 4.4 million people quit their jobs this April. You might assume people are leaving because they want more money or better benefits, but you'd be wrong. A recent Sloan Management Review study indicated people are 10 times more likely to quit their jobs today because of toxic work cultures rather than subpar compensation or work-life balance.

In other words: People aren't running to better pay. They're running from feeling overworked, undermined, and unappreciated.

In researching our new book, we spent three years scouring a combined 40 years of data from our work as coaches at hundreds of companies. We wanted to learn why some of the leaders we've advised have succeeded in building cohesive, healthy corporate cultures that outperform their peers, while others built low-performing companies marred by toxic behaviors like back-stabbing, credit-taking, and burnout.

Though the dataset could not prove causality, we did notice a consistent connection between the quality of the business and culture and the quality of the conversations those leaders and managers regularly had with their teams. They didn't just engage in casual chats about sports or the weather with their direct reports. Nor did they hold people accountable to task lists and KPIs. Instead, they consistently checked in with their people and had five specific conversations to inspire creativity and purpose. They made their teams feel seen, heard, appreciated, and supported, and as a consequence, their teams delivered better results.

These conversations can be tough to have and often can take a great deal of courage to conduct, but for any new or aspiring leader, they are essential to initiate during your one-on-ones.

1) Get curious about what your people need to be creative and resourceful, not just what needs to get done.

Every manager should keep an eye on what they need from people to stay on track with their larger team goals, but they should also stop and ask what their teams need to deliver on those goals. Each person has their own unique needs. Some may need better snacks to feel happy and energized while others may need to feel more psychologically safe or the freedom to work from their living rooms.

A one-size-fits-all approach won't work. While you can't have separate policies for everyone, making an effort to meet people's needs at the individual level and being flexible is paramount, especially with your top performers. Getting curious means listening actively, showing empathy, asking questions, and really hearing what people are saying.

Questions to ask:

What do you need to be at your best?

What impact are your needs (physical, emotional, or environmental) having on your productivity and creative well-being?

2) Learn about your team's fears and insecurities, and be courageous enough to talk about your own.

It's well documented that humans have natural biological and behavioral responses to fear. Fight, flight, and freeze in the office looks like hoarding resources, undermining each other's projects, and managers setting unreasonable deadlines. In our research, we found that these behaviors are almost always the result of a scarcity mindset that stems from unexpressed fears. Employees fall into these patterns when they don't know where they stand or are overwhelmed with stress.

Our fears are often alleviated when we talk about them openly and honestly. However, in an office setting the leader must share their own fears first to make others feel psychologically safe talking about theirs. Once the entire team can openly talk about fear, many of the toxic behaviors that have been cropping up will go away on their own.

Questions to ask:

What fears are holding you back?

When you're feeling stressed, what is your go-to response?

3) Help people get what they really want, but to do so without derailing them.

Most people want to win, to learn, or to feel of service. But taken to an extreme, each of these core motivators can be derailing. Too much focus on winning can lead to unscrupulous behavior. Spending too much time learning and researching and not really doing can lead to frustration. Wanting to be of service is great in the right context, but it can descend into ruinous people-pleasing when one stops getting their own needs met in the name of helping others.

You'll motivate people when you tap into what they really want, but you have to make sure they don't get too much of a good thing. If you give someone who wants autonomy too much space, they can actively resist or undermine colleagues who seek to collaborate with them. When people get derailed by their desires (when they're overly competitive or have a constant need of validation), they easily fall into toxic territory. The key is for managers to look for is the earliest signs of toxic behavior. Small flare-ups are easy to put out; house fires are not.

Questions to ask:

What desires drive you?

Which desires might derail you?

4) Put people in roles that help them do the best work of their careers.

If you exclusively focus on what needs to get done, you'll make the mistake of asking people to perform tasks beyond their competency. Yes, pushing people to grow is good, but setting them up to fail is not. In 1970, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi introduced the flow theory. In that, he found that enjoyment didn't result from relaxing or living without stress, but by doing activities for pleasure, even when people were not being rewarded by money or fame. These were activities or tasks in which their attention was fully absorbed, and he called it "being in flow."

The activities were usually difficult, involved some risk, and stretched a person's capability and skills. Similarly, at work, functioning at the peak of our abilities requires being pushed to the edge of our abilities. It makes us feel competent, and helps us grow. When you push people too far, however, they feel incompetent and lose motivation.

If you slow down enough to understand what people are really good at and place them in the right positions, you'll enjoy the increase in productivity that only comes when people are using their greatest talents. They'll also be more likely to feel like they're doing the best work of their careers. Leaders can help their teams find their gifts by providing them opportunities to work on different teams or entirely different projects. Rotating high potentials through various departments and allowing them to explore their curiosities may unlock untapped talents.

Questions to ask:

What are your greatest gifts?

When do you feel most engaged?

5) Remember that everyone wants to feel like they're fulfilling their highest purpose.

We all want to feel like we're a force of good in the world. How can you help your teams realize that their role is critical to the organization making the world a better place? Whom does your organization serve? How do you, as employees, improve lives? What is most important to your team? Whom do they want to serve?

Recent employee survey data suggests that managers who connect employees's work to the broader purpose and mission of the company are more likely to retain and motivate employees. By getting curious and having these conversations, managers can help their teams put the role they play into larger context and feel less like a nameless cog in the machine.

Questions to ask:

Do you feel there is purpose in the work you do? If not, what would fill that gap?

Can you describe an "aha" moment that resulted in you feeling a renewed sense of purpose in or outside of work?

Company cultures don't start out toxic. They get that way when managers stop having the conversations that make people feel seen, heard, appreciated, and invested in. Toxicity is best treated by engaging your people in conversations that help them get their needs met, dispel their fears, uncover their core motivators, do the best work of their lives, and fulfill their purpose.

It's only when managers stop their relentless focus on what needs to get done that their teams will feel engaged enough to get it all done.

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How to Protect Your Team From a Toxic Work Culture

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Why is it that some leaders succeed in building cohesive, healthy corporate cultures that outperform their peers while others build low-performing companies marred by toxic behaviors like back-stabbing, credit-taking, and burnout?

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HBR: How to Handle Difficult Conversations at Work

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HBR: How to Handle Difficult Conversations at Work

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HBR Learning

Difficult Interactions Course

Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning's online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Difficult Interactions. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

Learn how to resolve those inevitable workplace conflicts.

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How to Handle Difficult Conversations at Work

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HBR: How Leaders Can Get the Feedback They Need to Grow

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HBR: How Leaders Can Get the Feedback They Need to Grow

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When uncertainty is high, knowing where you stand - and learning about your mistakes while there's still time to fix them - is more important than ever. To be able to adapt to changing conditions and ensure that your team continues to feel supported and motivated, you need to understand what you're doing well - and where you're falling short. Soliciting clear, actionable feedback allows you to make better, more informed decisions and pivot when necessary.

Asking for feedback also creates a culture of trust and transparency. With concerns about an economic downturn rising, already overwhelmed teams are being asked to do more with less. When employees feel like their input matters, they're more likely to remain loyal, engaged, and productive. They're also much more willing to surface valuable concerns and suggestions.

But uncertainty also makes it much, much harder to get honest feedback. When people feel anxious or like their jobs might be in jeopardy, they're more reticent to speak up, especially to management. Add to that the fact that when people move up the ranks in an organization, they tend to get less corrective feedback, even though a 2014 study by Zenger Folkman showed that by a three-to-one margin, people believe corrective feedback does more to improve their performance than positive feedback.

In other words, right when you need it most, getting an accurate pulse on your performance as a leader becomes really, really hard. So how do you get feedback when people are least likely to offer it? How can you solicit actionable, useful advice from your reports? Neither one of you wants to have a hard conversation, but when you're the leader, it's your job to overcome that reluctance for yourself and help the other person overcome it, too.

Knowing how and when to ask for feedback is a learned skill - as is checking your (normal) defensive reaction in the face of helpful criticism. Based on our books and research, we put our heads together to outline the specific steps leaders should take to ask for feedback. The first thing to do is to ask for criticism, especially if you're the boss. This is awkward at best and can be a difficult emotional journey, so here are six tips for how to successfully solicit Radical Candor from your employees.

1. Embrace feeling "negative" emotions - often.

Hearing what you need to improve rarely feels good. Ask yourself: How many times each week do the people you work with tell you things that make you anxious, upset, or even defensive? How often do they tell you things that make you feel wonderful? If it's all feel-good praise and no hard-to-hear criticism, beware! You're not getting the real story. You need to work harder to get them to criticize you.

Remember, when it comes to soliciting Radical Candor, good news is no news, no news is bad news, and bad news is good news. As one of Liz's former managers told her, "Someone who cares about you tells you that you have food on your face. Everyone else will stay mum because they don't want to feel uncomfortable." Even though criticism is hard to hear in the moment, you need it to get better over time - and in time, it will sting less, too.

2. Have a go-to question.

It can be awkward to ask people point blank about what's going on. And when things are uncertain, it can feel risky to them to say what they actually think. We recommend that you come up with a go-to question that establishes psychological safety. There are three elements to a good go-to question:

The question cannot be answered with a yes or a no, or an "Oh, no, everything is fine" - which is exactly the answer you'll get most of the time if you ask, "Do you have any feedback for me?" Liz and Mollie love, "What one thing can I do to support you?" By asking for "one thing," you make it much more likely that you'll get a specific, actionable response.

Your question must sound like you - something you would naturally say. The question Kim likes to use is, "What could I do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me?" However, If those words don't fall easily off your tongue, find words that do.

Your question must be adapted for the person you're talking to. Jason Rosoff, who cofounded Radical Candor with Kim, told her he hates her go-to question, so she needs to ask him a more specific one.

Consider making your go-to question a recurring part of your 1:1 agendas. If your team knows what you'll be asking ahead of time, they'll have more time to prepare a useful answer.

3. Embrace the other person's discomfort.

No matter how good your go-to question is, the other person is likely to feel uncomfortable. And you're likely to feel uncomfortable because they're uncomfortable. It can be tempting to let the person off the hook at this point. But if you do that, you'll never get the feedback you need to succeed.

The only way out of this discomfort is through. Try asking your question and then remaining silent. Count to six, slowly, in your head. Very few people can endure six full seconds of silence. They'll tell you something.

4. Listen to understand, not to respond.

When listening to feedback, your motivation matters. You should want to understand what the other person is telling you, rather than listening so that you can deliver a response. It's the difference between, "I hear what you are saying, thank you" (great) and "I hear what you are saying, but..." (not so great).

Feedback opens us up to seeing our behaviors from different points of view. If we're focused on defending ourselves, we lose out on the opportunity to learn and improve. A helpful hint about listening to understand: look for the criticism. Often people will hide the criticism. Sometimes you'll get "oreo" feedback: two positive thoughts around a negative one. (This is sometimes called, less appetizingly, the shit sandwich.) Make sure you don't miss the criticism. Other times the feedback will be more like an oatmeal raisin cookie. Don't miss the raisins!

5. Close the loop: Make your listening tangible.

The best way to ensure you'll continue receiving feedback is to follow up and share the actions you've taken based on what you heard.

When you receive critical comments, it's useful to immediately outline what you'll do with the suggestions or concerns that were flagged. Try, "Here's what I'll do moving forward." And remember: You don't need to promise to make massive changes (you might not be able to deliver on those promises). You can say something like, "My next step will be to talk to other leaders to see what's possible."

Take Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who gets an annual 360-degree written assessment that any employee can contribute to. Hastings closed the loop on his 2019 360 by writing a memo to all Netflix employees. Here's an excerpt from his book No Rules Rules:

I find the best comments for my growth are unfortunately the most painful. So, in the spirit of 360, thank you for bravely and honestly pointing out to me: "In meetings you can skip over topics or rush through them when you feel impatient or determine a particular topic on the agenda is no longer worth the time...On a similar note, watch out for letting your point-of-view overwhelm. You can short-change the debate by signaling alignment when it doesn't exist." So true, so sad, and so frustrating that I still do this. I will keep working on it.

Once you've taken action, make sure you share the changes you've made. Ask if you overcorrected or undercorrected. Helpful hint: If the problem is something you've struggled with for some time, it's usually a good idea to try to overcorrect. If you get feedback that you move too fast, work on slowing down until someone tells you you're moving too slowly.

And if you weren't able to do anything differently, communicate why. When an employee told Kim she interrupted him and other employees in meetings, she wore a rubber band to her next staff meeting, told everyone about the feedback, and asked for help in changing this deeply ingrained bad habit that she couldn't realistically change overnight. She asked people to snap the rubber band on her wrist when they noticed her interrupting. (She knew that the people on her team would actually do that, and with a laugh - you might decide to take a different approach.) The rubber band helped her interrupt less. But more importantly, it made her listening tangible - and explained that although she couldn't change things overnight, she was working on it.

One of the biggest missteps we see leaders take is staying silent when, after careful consideration, they realize they're unable to act on feedback. When employees never hear back after giving feedback, they'll assume that their suggestions were ignored. It's much, much better to come back to your team and say something like, "Unfortunately, due to the executive team's priorities for the quarter, we won't be able to do ____, but I'm going to keep it in mind," than to say nothing at all.

6. Make giving feedback - not venting - a team habit.

Consistent venting, when you rehash the same problems without trying to understand or solve them, can make you and your team feel worse. This is because you're ingraining the frustration in your brain by talking about it over and over, without actually focusing on what can be learned or changed.

Even worse is when a person doesn't feel safe giving feedback to another person and instead vents their frustrations to a neutral third party. This may make the frustrated person feel better in the moment, but it doesn't solve anything long-term, since the other person is oblivious to their frustrating behaviors. When someone comes and talks to you about someone else who is not in the room, it may feel like you're being an empathetic listener. But really all you're doing is stirring the political pot. Instead, encourage them to go talk directly with the other person. Offer your services as a mediator, but remind them that it still requires both of them to talk to you at the same time. There are obvious exceptions - if a person is being bullied or harassed, don't tell them to go work it out directly.

Make feedback a team habit so that people feel safe giving it directly instead of venting to someone else. The place to start is soliciting feedback. If everyone is soliciting feedback, it's more likely to be met with open ears.

. . .

When things are up in the air, it can feel comforting to avoid difficult feedback. But creating stability for your team - and success for your organization - depends on your ability to learn what needs to change. Burying your head in the sand is never the safe thing to do. A culture of ruinous empathy or false harmony is not the path to success! Instead, invite criticism.

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How Leaders Can Get the Feedback They Need to Grow

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When things are uncertain, it can feel comforting to avoid difficult feedback. But creating stability for your team - and success for your organization - depends on your ability to learn what needs to change. Burying your head in the sand is never the safe thing to do.

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Fearless Culture: The Power of Clarifying Questions

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Fearless Culture: The Power of Clarifying Questions

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An introduction to clarifying questions - and why your colleagues should use them more often

The quality of your team's conversations is directly correlated to the questions people ask. It has never been more important to facilitate fruitful discussions. Unfortunately, proper questioning has become a lost art. The rush to act now - to keep up to speed with the fast-moving world - leads us to poor decision-making.

Great leaders avoid jumping to conclusions or assumptions; they rely on powerful questions to understand the facts before passing judgment. Clarifying questions help leaders understand what others are saying - they can better understand a problem, identify new solutions, and evaluate alternatives.

In today's world, organizations need to think more than ever. Regardless of whether you are a leader or team member, active listening can improve communication and, above all, collaboration.

Here's how to improve your team's conversations by asking better clarifying questions.

What Are Clarifying Questions? (And Why They Improve Active Listening)

Most people think being a good listener comes down to paying attention, not interrupting the speaker, and being able to repeat back what they said. However, we've got it all wrong, according to research.

Good listening is not about being a passive observer engaging in fruitful conversations. Questions turn the "speaker versus hearer" division into a dialogue, making everyone feel heard and thrilled.

Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman reflect on their research findings: "While many of us have thought of being a good listener being like a sponge that accurately absorbs what the other person is saying, instead, what these findings show is that good listeners are like trampolines. They are someone you can bounce ideas off of - and rather than absorbing your ideas and energy, they amplify, energize, and clarify your thinking."

Questions make your colleagues feel supported and help them refine their ideas or opinions. Good listening is a cooperative conversation.

Asking questions means you want to learn. They improve dialogue and minimize any misunderstanding, confusion, or ambiguity. Clarifying questions help us become better listeners by encouraging us to seek more information, rather than assuming we understand.

For example, instead of reacting to a team member's idea with, "That's a terrible idea," you could ask, "Can you tell me what inspired you to come up with this idea?" or "How do you think it will help solve our customers' problems?"

Clarifying questions also provide feedback to the speaker, indicating which parts of their message were unclear. If you're confused, asking for more details will provide clues about what's missing. For example, ask, "Can you explain more about what it would take to implement this new process you just described?"

There are two types of clarifying questions:

‍Open questions: They ask the speaker to elaborate on a certain part of their message. Most of them have the form of when, why, where, or how types of questions and encourage the speaker to openly expand their thoughts and ideas.‍

Validation questions: They simply reiterate a part of the message and invite the speaker to confirm or not what or whether the listener understood.

Effective team conversations require building off each other's solutions. Uncover the value of an idea before discarding it simply because you didn't understand or like it at first glance.

There are four types of questions (I cover this in the bonus section at the end of this article). However, for now, I want to focus on two: Clarifying and Probing.

Probing questions can come across as confrontational or critical, discouraging open dialogue. Clarifying questions provide a pause, delaying the urge to jump to reactions, while probing questions offer judgment. We want to encourage the first and avoid the latter.

Unfortunately, people usually use probing questions when presented with a new concept or opinion - very few teams leverage the power of clarifying questions.

Here's a comparison of both types of questions with some examples.

Great questions aim not to judge what's been said but to keep the conversation going. Often, at work, we minimize, underestimate, and even attack other people's ideas because we got them all wrong.

We end up judging our interpretation of the idea - not what the other person actually said.

Clarifying questions help team members truly listen to each other. Some of their benefits are:

1. They help you clarify instructions from your manager or colleague

2. They allow you to fill in the gaps so you can understand the whole picture

3. They encourage speakers to be clearer and more specific

4. They promote a fluid dialogue between speakers and listeners

5. They train you to practice active listening

So, why are clarifying questions so important?

The Benefits of Asking Clarifying Questions

Companies have realized that leaders who ask good questions are more valuable than those who want to have all the answers. As I explained in a previous post, facilitating courageous and productive conversations is a valuable leadership skill.

Research shows that the demand for executives who listen empathetically, welcome input, and rally people around a shared future is increasing.

A team of Harvard Business School Professors, who analyzed thousands of executive job search descriptions created over 17 years, found that the demand for social skills is increasing in every category of the economy.

Headhunters and corporate recruiters want executives who can:

Actively listen to others

Empathize genuinely with others' experiences

Persuade people to work toward a common goal

Communicate clearly

Misunderstandings can happen more often in a hybrid workplace as I explain in my book Remote, Not Distant. If we're not careful, issues can get blown out of proportion because we assume rather than try to understand what the other person meant.

Asking clarifying questions before assessing an idea or opinion has many benefits. Let's review the most important advantages.

To pause instead of jumping to conclusions

Asking clarifying questions is a choice to go beyond the superficial. Getting more information, details, or context prevents your team from making poor decisions. It encourages us to assume positive intent - rather than judging, we want to learn more.

This is crucial to turn feedback into a gift. Feedback givers should ask questions to help the receiver reflect on the feedback received; receivers must use clarifying questions to ensure they got the right message instead of jumping to conclusions.

To better understand a position or idea

Clarifying questions are also a good way to properly understand the nuances of someone's opinion. By asking open clarifying questions, the listener pushes the speaker to explain their thoughts or elaborate on their ideas - usually ending in an improved version of the original concept.

To explore ideas outside of our comfort zone

How many times have you felt uncomfortable when someone is sharing a novel idea? It's easier to criticize the idea than to realize that it's our mental frame that needs to be revisited. Asking clarifying questions facilitates our journey - to move from resistance to acceptance.

Often, a set of questions can help you tackle a large problem in small chunks. Follow-up questions make it easier to understand a complex problem or solution. Great ideas are the result of smart questions, while fixed statements often justify our resistance to change. Use clarifying questions to stretch beyond your comfort zone.

To help colleagues think through their ideas

Great questions can help challenge not only your assumptions but also those of the idea owner. It's natural to fall in love with one's thoughts and fail to see what's missing. Great clarifying questions help people reflect not only on the solution but also on how and why it was created.

Asking questions can help teammates consider other angles, uncover the purpose behind a solution, and dive deeper into implementation details.

To elevate the quality of the conversation

Good leaders think like good detectives: they use questions to get to the truth, often tapping into distinct sources. Asking clarifying questions not only helps the originator to think through their ideas but also promotes collaboration - team members feel compelled to elevate the original idea.

Gathering information from diverse sources is vital to make effective decisions - and to drive innovation. Clarifying questions help receivers better understand someone else's thoughts or opinions by encouraging active listening. Asking clarifying questions elevates the quality of the conversation, welcoming the team to think like detectives.

Above all, clarifying questions lead to smarter solutions. Replace judgment with questions that aim to build rather than obstruct.

Clarifying Questions Help Teams Make Better Decisions

Communication is one of the most important leadership skills - it's critical for successful team collaboration. However, listening is hard work. We all fail to master this precious skill.

A study of over 8,000 people found that virtually all respondents believed that they communicate as effectively or more effectively than their co-workers. How can it be possible that everyone is above average? It's simple: we all overrate our ability to be good listeners. On average, we all listen at only about 25% efficiency.

Identifying gaps in your understanding is the first step toward having better conversations - and decisions.

I was first introduced to the power of clarifying questions when I learned how to facilitate the Integrative-Decision Making method - also known as consent (don't confuse it with consensus - check the differences here).

The more I facilitate the Integrative-Decision Making (IDM) method with consulting clients or workshop participants, the more I'm convinced that asking clarifying questions is a vital instrument of conversational acumen.

Team members rarely ask others to expand on an opinion or further describe an idea. They usually jump to judgment. Then, when they do ask questions, their intent is not to seek understanding but to express an opinion or judgment.

The IDM process includes a step to prevent this from happening. Each participant canof pose one or more clarifying questions after hearing a proposal from a colleague. This practice encourages people to listen and, most importantly, to fully understand an idea before criticizing it.

During this step, only clarifying questions are welcome - opinions or reactions disguised as questions should not be allowed.

Let me share a real-life example from one of our decision-making workshops. The team leader shared a proposal and I used the IDM to facilitate a productive conversation between all members.

Proposal: "I want to shift our team's schedule to adopt a four-day workweek, working 9 hours per day instead of 8, as we currently do."

Clarifying questions

Here are some of the questions that the team shared with the leader. He answered them all one-at-a-time often prompting follow-up questions to seek further clarification. Notice how people look for understanding or additional details - there weren't just repeating what the leader said.

When are we starting with the new workweek and how will we manage the transition to the new model?

Why a four-day week?

Can team members choose the days they work or must everyone follow the same schedule?

How will we manage clients' expectations (that we'll deliver support five days a week)?

Is this an experiment or are we going all in into a four-day workweek?

Will the team workload be adjusted to the new schedule?

Avoid opinions disguised as questions

Following are some questions that were rejected because they were opinions, not real questions - the intent wasn't to learn more about the proposal but rather to question its validity.

Don't you think that reducing the workweek will harm productivity? (I'm worried about the current workload and this will make things worse).

How are we going to track that people are working 9 hours a day instead of 8? (I don't trust people are going to work without control mechanisms).

Shouldn't we involve the whole team and do more research before moving forward? (I'd rather delay this proposal)

What happens if it doesn't work? Are we going to stick to the new model or go back to a five-day workweek? (I don't think this proposal will work in the long run).

The facilitator must push back when people are expressing their opinions, encouraging them to use clarifying questions instead.

If you're curious about how the whole consent method works, check this post.

The Quality of Questions Improves Team Conversations

Great leaders lead with questions, not perfect answers. They tap into collective wisdom, leveraging people's unique views, backgrounds, and expertise.

Clarifying questions are a powerful tool for team collaboration, as they encourage active listening and understanding rather than jumping to conclusions or reacting. They also tackle both ends of the (miss)communication spectrum: lack of clarity from the speaker or lack of understanding from the receiver.

To use clarifying questions effectively in team collaboration, everyone should be aware of the different types of questions - prioritize using clarifying ones over probing questions. Make a conscious effort to ask clarifying questions during team meetings and discussions and encourage others to do the same.

Clarifying questions support learning, decision-making, and conflict resolution. They invite in new information, provide transparency, and get everyone on the same page. They can help your team reframe problems, generate new solutions, and evolve existing ones.

Most importantly, clarifying questions help build trust by replacing judgment with curiosity.

Effective team conversations are vital to uncover possibilities, build on each other's ideas, and accelerate innovation. Often, misunderstanding and judgment get in the way, blocking dialogue and exploration. Asking clarifying questions is a simple way to have healthier debates and elevate the quality of your team conversations.

Reach out if you need help coaching your team to ask better questions and have better conversations - or enjoy this article's bonus below.

[Bonus] The Four Types of Questions

Different types of questions generate different types of answers - and responses. Great leaders understand the four different types of questions and which to use when.

Clarifying questions aim to better understand what the speaker is saying - and their intent - before we jump to conclusions. Examples: "Can you tell me more?"

"How will it work?" "What do you mean by?" "Can you give me an example?"

Probing questions challenge the speaker's views or ideas - often to criticize or highlight flaws. While effective in certain contexts, they usually shut people down. Examples: "Do you think this is going to work? Why?" "How do you know your assumption is true? What if the opposite is true?" "Why haven't you considered X, Y, and Z instead?" "Can I play the devil's advocate?"

Avoid asking probing questions before the team has completed the clarifying questions phase. Ideally, ask exploratory questions - even generative ones - before getting into probing ones.

Exploratory questions help consider different scenarios and possibilities. They are a recommended next step once you completed the clarifying question round. Examples: "What are the long-term effects?" "Will this work in all scenarios?" "Are we addressing the right problem?"

Generative questions identify new solutions or improve upon existing ones. Jumping into generative questions too early in the conversation could create friction as the proposer could feel their idea is not worthy. I often recommend generative questions when a team member is stuck and needs input or after completing the clarification questions or exploratory questions rounds.

Examples: "What other possible solutions can we consider?" "What better ways can we develop to solve this problem?" "Instead of solving for this specific problem, what systemic issues should we solve for?"

Clarifying and probing questions help us zoom in on a proposal or idea - the former to better understand, the latter to evaluate.

Exploratory and generative questions help us zoom out and see the bigger picture - the former to consider different scenarios, the latter to discover and explore new solutions.
Article by Gustavo Razzetti, CEO of Fearless Culture
Gustavo facilitates courageous conversations that drive culture transformation. He is a sought-after speaker, culture consultant, and best-selling author of the book Remote, Not Distant.

Razzetti is also the creator of the Culture Design Canvas - a visual and practical method for intentionally designing workplace culture. His insights were featured in Psychology Today, The New York Times, Forbes, and BBC.

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The Power of Clarifying Questions - And How to Improve Team Conversations | By Gustavo Razzetti

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The quality of your team's conversations is directly correlated to the questions people ask. It has never been more important to facilitate fruitful discussions. Unfortunately, proper questioning has become a lost art. The rush to act now - to keep up to speed with the fast-moving world - leads us to poor decision-making.

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People Management: Employees are 3x More Engaged When They Feel Supported by Managers

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People Management: Employees are 3x More Engaged When They Feel Supported by Managers

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Commentators call for more training and development of line managers as survey highlights their impact on the workforce

Compassionate Eye Foundation/James Tse

Employees who feel well supported by their line manager are 3.4 times more likely to feel engaged at work, a study has found.

The study of 50,000 employees by Inpulse found that 81 per cent of those who felt trusted by their line managers were engaged, compared to 28 per cent of employees who didn't.

The survey also revealed that employees feeling trusted and supported had the "greatest impact" on how engaged people were at work.

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Clare Kelliher, professor of work and organisation at Cranfield School of Management, said the findings underlined the importance of line managers in employee engagement, and advised that organisations invest in their development.

"Organisations need to invest in line manager training to help develop their people management skills and particularly how to demonstrate their trust in and respect for the employees they manage," said Kelliher, she added that it is also key to foster a culture that is "conducive to employee voice" which focuses on employee wellbeing.

The survey found that the majority (80 per cent) of employees felt trusted by their line manager, and 83 per cent felt respected.

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It also found that employees who felt supported by their line managers had an Engagement Index Score of 74 per cent, while those who did not had a score of 22 per cent.

Gemma McCall, chief executive and founder of Culture Shift, advised that managers need to encourage transparency in the workplace and take advantage of their ability to work closely with their employees.

"My advice to line managers would be to empower your employees by encouraging a speak-up culture, which breaks down barriers and creates a safe space to share issues, should they arise," said McCall, who added it is "important not to forget that line managers are in a "unique position to listen to colleagues, and implement real change for the whole team to benefit from".

Anthony Painter, director of policy and external affairs at the Chartered Management Institute, said managers could make a difference for employees at all stages of their working lives, and that the "best managed" teams are fostered by a supportive culture where employees are encouraged to bring their best selves to work and take ownership of their development.

"Employers of all sizes and shapes - in business and in public services - need to equip their managers with the skills and behaviours they need in order to bring out the very best in their teams, including protecting their wellbeing on a day to day basis," said Painter, adding that management, just like everything else," is a skill set and one that needs to be taught and nurtured".

However, Isabel Collins, culture specialist and founder of Belonging Space, said that management training often falls by the wayside in organisations which has a direct impact on employees.

"Too often managers are left unsupported, working from individual [ability] or copying leaders - for good or bad," said Collins, who warned this would result in "an inconsistent and sometimes poor employee experience".

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Employees are three times more engaged when they feel supported by managers, study shows

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Commentators call for more training and development of line managers as survey highlights their impact on the workforce

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HBR: 28 Questions to Ask Your Boss in Your 1:1s

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HBR: 28 Questions to Ask Your Boss in Your 1:1s

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Good one-on-one meetings between managers and their direct reports address the practical and personal needs of the employee, benefitting their performance, growth, and well-being, as well as the success of their team and the broader organization. However, since managers are typically the ones who run these meetings, the employee's needs are often forgotten. Then it's up to the employee to ask questions to get the attention they need. The authors' research points to twenty-eight questions that can drive the best conversations.

When she started a new role, Brianna was told she would be having regular one-on-one meetings (1:1s) with her manager, Jayden. She welcomed this news; she saw it as a great opportunity to get aligned with and supported and mentored by her new boss. But her hopes were quickly dashed. In their initial meeting, Jayden focused only on project updates and then assigned her a few additional tasks. This pattern continued over the weeks and Brianna routinely left their meetings feeling both micro-managed and unsupported in her development.

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Good one-on-one meetings between managers and their direct reports address the practical and personal needs of the employee, benefitting their performance, growth, and well-being, as well as the success of their team and the broader organization. However, since managers are typically the ones who run these meetings, the employee's needs are often forgotten.

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