How to boast safe feedback culture based on praise

Tips on how to boost feedback within the workplace

Providing your team with good feedback can not only boost morale in the workplace, it can also increase productivity, which in turn contributes to the success of a company or organisation.

The best way for an individual to progress in their career is to identify their strengths, which team leaders can help with.

According to Impraise, after analysing 230,000 feedback interactions over a period of 18 months, it was revealed that almost 92 per cent of real-time feedback given through the Impraise platform was positive.

This information comes as a surprise in light of numerous discussions surrounding how destructive anonymous feedback can be, with 90 per cent of Impraise customers using anonymous feedback.

So how can leaders provide feedback in a way that will be constructive and useful to overall team productivity? Here we take a look at ways they can do this.

Early praise

The sooner you start praising workers for the things they’ve done well, the better, especially if they are a new recruit. Timely praise will boost both your team and the individual's confidence, rather than seeming like an afterthought.

Vary compliments

Some people take compliments differently to others. Tailor them to who you are giving them to. This can be based on both experience and personality. For example, an extrovert may prefer being complimented in front of a large audience of other employees, whereas an introvert may prefer this praise one-to-one.

Ask why

If you want to give good feedback, ask yourself why. Is it sincere? And will it be beneficial to your colleague and the team? It is important to give this feedback at the right time and in the right space, like during an appraisal when both of you feel comfortable with your surroundings.

Be clear

Giving vague feedback is easy. However, if a person doesn’t know the specifics of what they are being praised for then the process is unlikely to be helpful or to have a strong effect on performance. Be clear and separate praise from criticism so the individual knows exactly what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.