Do Your Employees Know How You Feel?

Formal reviews should never be a surprise to the employee, whether those reviews are positive or negative. As leaders, we need to ensure that we are providing constant feedback, so that when it comes time for the formal review, the employee simply gets confirmation and documentation of how we feel about them and their performance.

Friday, I read a Facebook post of a gentleman who used to work with me. We spent 20 years together before I left the company. When he finally retired two years ago, there was no party, no recognition and no accolades. This hurt him so much that two years later he’s still talking about it on Facebook. He was a fantastic employee who contributed a great deal to the company's success. Al deserved better.

My daughter Breanna recently had her 90-day review at her new job. As a proud father, I was not surprised by the accolades bestowed on Breanna for her work in the first 90 days, but she said: “Sometimes I’m just so busy there, I don’t know if I’m living up to their expectations from being hired. But it sounds like I’m exceeding that and more, so it was nice to hear! Now that I know I’m in the right lane, it’s time for more gas pedal!” To the company’s credit, they were very specific in their praise according to Bree: “They were proud and blown away at how much grace I showed when I fired an employee. They love the fact that I instantly built trust and credibility with a team that existed before I did, and they trust me to lead them. I blew up the current way of doing things and got buy-in for a complete restructure of my team.”

Formal reviews are great and important. At the same time, they may lull us into believing that it’s only then that we give recognition or correction to our employees. More so now than ever in a hybrid work environment, when many are working from home, it’s critical to provide constant feedback. Feedback should always include at least three things:

Praise or corrective actions to be taken.

Specifics – Be specific about the things you admire or need to have corrected.

Appreciation – We are all working harder than we’ve ever worked; make certain your employees understand how much you appreciate them.

It would be our strong advice that these three things, praise/correction, specifics and appreciation should be part of your weekly one-on-ones with your sellers. No need to wait for “formal reviews” to make your employees feel valued and appreciated. We have the power as leaders to make our employees feel as awesome as they are. As you can see from Bree’s reaction, she was inspired to work even harder and do even more. That’s the incredible motivating power of praise.

Who can you praise today?

Happy Monday!

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can also connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.