The Positive Energy Workplace

I was leading a session with a group recently when the topic of feedback came up. The room froze. "What's your relationship with feedback?" I asked. "Fear, avoidance, dread, ineffective" were words that came up while the energy of discomfort and heaviness permeated the room.

The quality of your feedback has the power to make or break results in your organization, strengthen or dissolve connection, build or break trust, and elicit creativity or carefulness. What's the quality of your feedback?

I find feedback to be one of the most important leadership skills people can work with yet also one of the most intimidating; people fear it, avoid it, sugar coat it, and "feedback sandwich" it leaving the receiver with diluted feedback, hurt feelings, and lost opportunities that do no one any good.

Often people view performance reviews and feedback as scary, something to avoid—from both the giving and receiving ends. But it doesn't have to be that way. Are you giving reviews as a top-down activity, just going through the motions because you have to? Or do you take advantage of a rich opportunity to truly impact someone in a meaningful way?

You CAN give feedback powerfully, beautifully, and effectively. The solution is to bring more IEP (Intentional Energetic Presence) and TLC (Tender Loving Care) to the feedback and performance review process, more rigor, and more powerful “truth telling” and “pointing” in service of others. Your effectiveness in doing this will depend on the intention, energy, and presence you bring to the table.

The level of disengagement in the American workplace is staggering. But the solution is as simple as getting consistent feedback from your employees and providing positive feedback in return. [tweet_quote hashtags="@iepmethod" ]This feedback loop has been shown to increase employee engagement[/tweet_quote] as well as boosting creativity and productivity while improving retention.