One of the most frequent grievances of managers is that they don’t have much feedback from their people. And even if they do, it is often filtered and not always honest. In fact, employees are sometimes even afraid to offer constructive feedback just out of fear of repercussions. That's why our people science team offered an insight into the reasoning and some proven tactics for eliciting genuine & honest feedback from your people. 

Every time I ask them if they have anything to add regarding me, they say ‘nothing’

Let's try to take a closer look at this situation. At the end of a 1-on-1 or a team meeting, the manager asks the question in the last few minutes: "And do you have anything for me?"  It it often combined with several other questions: “Is there something that doesn't suit you that you need done differently? … “. Afterwards, the manager is visibly relieved when the other parties react with considerable awkwardness: "Not really, no" or shrugging and shaking their heads. The manager then quickly concludes the conversation: "Good, so ...".

First of all, kudos to the manager for even asking for feedback. In fact, almost 40% of managers never do. If we deconstruct the scenario, there is multiple points we can build upon. 

• The manager gave space for feedback at the end, which says: "We don't have much time for it, it's only at the end and it's actually just routine and a formality."
• They asked a very general question which was difficult to find an answer to on the spot, or they asked so many that it wasn't clear which one to answer-or in team meetings, who should even answer.
• At the end, team members heard the reply "good" to the fact that they had had nothing to say to their superior, which gave the impression it was a good thing to have nothing for them.

On top of that, it’s good to be aware that feedback is a relatively demanding discipline even for managers who have usually been trained in it. It isn’t easy for them to give truly good praise and constructive criticism. Few people enjoy or find it easy to give negative feedback. And this is with the manager having support in his role and in the skills acquired; so how is an ordinary untrained employee supposed to handle it.

It doesn’t help that the general population of managers is more vigorous and assertive than "non-managers" (which is often why they become managers). Giving them feedback from the root of the matter and from the role of a subordinate is not entirely easy.

What’s more, those who have tried have not always had strictly positive experiences:

• I tried and… my superior explained that I was looking at it the wrong way, that I had no idea of the bigger picture, that I had a bad attitude towards it…
• I tried and… I then had to strongly defend myself…
• I tried and… my superior then reminded me of it for several days and came back to it repeatedly…
• I tried and… for several days the atmosphere in the office was quite tense...
• I tried and… my superior told me that I could simply work elsewhere…

What does this imply? If you really want honest feedback from your people, there's a couple of things to keep in mind: 

1 | By failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail

Give your people the opportunity to prepare and think about how and what they would like to tell you. You should also prepare when you’re getting feedback ready for your people. "Springing" it on them without preparation will not get you any useful information. If you want to make it even easier for them, offer them a structure they can stick to. This will make the feedback richer and you’ll be better able to work with the information obtained.

2 | Time is a wonderful way to show what really matters to you

If you are serious about your people’s feedback, allow enough attention and time for it. If you include it in your 1-on-1 meeting, put it in the first part of the meeting or set aside a separate meeting for it. Definitely don't rush and give your people time to express themselves.

3 | Use methods that guarantee anonymity

It is very difficult for untrained people to give open eye-to-eye feedback. Especially to your superior. So, look for different ways to give feedback. For conventional people, written feedback can be a very convenient form. They don't have to worry about the immediate reaction or clumsiness in formulation. They can think about what they want to tell you and rewrite it several times until they are satisfied with the wording.

The online form makes feedback a lot easier. There is no fear of personal confrontation, you can prepare the wordings and rework them, and give the feedback a solid structure. In addition, it carries other benefits:

• Possibility to work with the feedback received in terms of data. Following trends over time, evaluating shifts, and also returning to feedback over time in an undistorted form.
• We tend to "translate" the feedback that we "only" hear once at the moment we hear it. So we sometimes understand something differently than what was actually said; we tend to "mishear" things, and exaggerate others.
• Immediately after the feedback, we take away only a bit of what the other party tells us. After a few days, even this disappears, and after a few weeks we are actually working with something completely different (our own idea) than what we were originally told.
• With online feedback, the meaning doesn't change over time, we can go back to it, and it's possible that we'll see things differently from the second or third reading than we did the first time. 

4 | Respect. No rebuttal. And respect. 

If you want your people to give you feedback again next time, try to understand why they are saying what they’re saying from their point of view. If you start defending yourself or immediately explain to them that you see it differently, they won't tell you anything next time. Realize that this is feedback for you. The goal is not to correct the subordinate’s point of view, but to understand them and work with the information. Even if you think they misunderstand something, it is their reality and you have to get along with it, not refute it.

5 | Feedback is a gift, don't send it back unopened 

The best way to teach your people not to be afraid to give you feedback is to work with the feedback you’ve already received. That is, follow it up with specific steps, measures, and actions. If in the previous point we encouraged you to respect and not refute, then here it’s fitting to include the education of subordinates in a particular topic if the feedback for you resulted from the fact that they do not fully understand something or lack some knowledge. It’s not actually part of the feedback, but a follow-up action. Nevertheless, changes should occur with you too (I explain more, I give information, I engage, I change my procedures, I adapt them to the needs of the team…). If your people see that feedback leads to useful changes, they will be happy to give it more often.