This article comes from Entrepreneur.

To Motivate Your Employees, Give Honest Feedback

To be most effective, feedback should be tailored to the individual, well thought out and delivered close to the event. Anything else will limit the motivational effect.

Positive feedback

To give positive feedback, the easiest way to start is to see employees doing something right and comment on it. We coach the managers we work with to make it a practice to praise employees on at least one specific item each week. Thanking them for a job well done will often result in the employees repeating the behavior.

Our next piece of advice: When praising employees, make sure that you are: 1) specific about what you liked; and 2) you link their behavior back to the goals of the organization.

Negative feedback

Negative feedback is more difficult for most managers. The first time you have an issue with an employee’s performance, let him or her know. Your comments do not have to be harsh. Rather, they should be assertive and factual. Begin with a neutral comment to reduce defensiveness. Then, while using a pleasant but firm tone of voice, explain how the employee’s behavior affects you, your team or the company and why it is a problem. Next, ask for the behavior/performance you expect. Finish your feedback with a question asking the employee to fulfill with your request.

Giving employees negative feedback is uncomfortable for most managers. But, ignoring performance issues is unfair to both the employee and the organization. Remember, employees want to be recognized, contributing members of a winning team.

To get them there, be willing to give both positive and negative feedback, both rewards and consequences. One without the other will fail to get you the performance you desire.

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