Leaders have the greatest impact on organizational climate and performance. According to The Hay Group, a global consulting firm renowned for their organizational research, nearly 75% of an organization’s climate is influenced by the managerial style that is present. Put another way, the particular actions and attitudes a leader demonstrates set the tone for the entire organization. So if you create a positive climate for your employees and co-workers, they will be much more likely to give it their all at work and provide what we call “discretionary performance”. Unless you won the lottery recently or are somehow otherwise independently wealthy, it is safe to assume that you have to work. But only you can decide who shows up at work each day – someone who will do whatever it takes to get the job done, or someone who is simply punching a clock and waiting to go home to hang out with family and friends.

So ask yourself the following questions:

• In what ways am I creating a positive organizational climate for my employees and co-workers?
• What affect does this have on my direct reports and other co-workers?
• And most importantly, what can I do to adjust my managerial style to enhance performance within my organization?

We’re all busy at work – in fact, there never seems to be enough time in the day or week to get everything done. You might be surprised to realize though that one of the easiest ways to create a more positive organizational climate is simply to sit down with your employees and fellow co-workers and give them some feedback on how things are going. Giving performance feedback – positive and constructive – is a gift, and it’s a gift that each of us is uniquely qualified to offer because of the unique perspectives we have about how people are achieving their individual objectives.

So what exactly is feedback, and why is it so important? Giving feedback is providing someone information about a particular instance or a particular behavior that occurred at a particular point in time. Effective feedback enables the receiver to walk away understanding exactly what he or she did and what impact it had on you and the entire organization. Feedback is important because it helps keep people on course. It’s like having lane markers and a retaining wall on the freeway. When you give feedback, you’re helping keep someone’s car in the right lane. Without it, a person could stray pretty far off course which makes getting back on track that much more difficult.

When employees are already meeting their performance expectations, we simply need to offer positive reinforcement and publicly recognize them for these accomplishments. This positive feedback helps enhance personal commitment and motivation and can provide the right opportunity for discussing new career goals. This may come in the form of new project assignments or other career growth opportunities. When current performance is not meeting expectations though, we need to provide more constructive feedback to help people change. Employees need to know what corrective actions they need to take to improve their performance, so this constructive feedback can actually inspire people by helping them understand what it will take to succeed. This constructive dialogue also provides a good opportunity for discussing specific training that may be required to enhance current skill sets or establishing a one-on-one coaching program to further assist employees who seem to be struggling.

For feedback to be effective, make sure that it’s timely, but also take into account the receptivity of the receiver when structuring the conversation. In addition, feedback needs to be specific and factual, so start with your observations rather than your conclusions or interpretations of what may have occurred. Most importantly, feedback must be authentic and well-intended to be effective, so be sure of your purpose before you give anyone feedback. If you are genuinely trying to help someone improve performance, that will come across loud and clear. If you are just trying to get back at someone or need to take out your frustrations on somebody, that too will be very clear from your tone and body language. When receiving constructive feedback, people tend to “hear” different messages than we intend to deliver, so it is critical to separate any distracting thoughts or other feelings from the message you are trying to deliver.

Feedback also needs to be provided to all employees on a regular basis no matter where their current performance level is, so remember to give feedback – positive and constructive – to everyone. What do you think happens to “Superstar” performance if you don’t provide feedback to these exceptional employees? There’s a very good chance that exceptional performance will deteriorate over time. And some of your most reliable “Steady Eddie” performers may slip over time too if you do not give them feedback on a regular basis.

So now that you know how important feedback is to ensure the success of your organization – as well as how easy it can be to give – we want to encourage you to take a few minutes to think of an employee you would like to give positive feedback to this week. The STAR model below can be extremely useful for giving positive feedback to someone.

• ST = Situation/Task – Describe the situation or task you observed
• A = Action – Describe the actions taken by the employee
• R = Result - Describe the result of those actions

When you are ready to practice giving constructive feedback to someone, simply add the following two steps to the STAR model above.

• A = Alternative Action – Describe the actions the employee should have taken/should take in the future
• R = Alternative Result – Describe the result that the alternative actions would have created/will create in the future

Coaching is a great tool that helps employees satisfy their need for development. It also goes a long way towards helping the organization achieve its need for high performance. So whether you’re giving positive feedback to reinforce good performance or constructive feedback to explain what alternative actions need to be taken in the future, this feedback is a gift you can easily give your employees and fellow co-workers. Just be specific and focus on the implications of the actions people take. It only takes a few minutes a day – if that – but it will have a tremendous impact on you and those around you.

Can Plus Delta help you become an excellent leader? To learn how to increase leadership excellence within your organization, give us a call at +1 (310) 589-4600 or send an email to info@plusdelta.net. You can also visit the Custom Learning page of our website for more information about the Improving Performance through Leadership Excellence^SM learning program.

Note: This feature was originally published and distributed in Plus Delta Consulting’s e-newsletter in April 2007.