Is a manager who gives praise or a manager who points out areas of improvement, better?

Some managers are afraid to give out negative feedback. They shift their focus away from where their employees need to improve. It sometimes has to deal with managers wanting to be friends with their employees.

Others, it seems like all they do is point out people’s flaws, making it near impossible to get through.

Rather than one being better than the other, a good leader learns to balance the two.

While most don’t like to give negative feedback, a majority like to receive it. In fact, 57% of us prefer corrective feedback to 43% who prefer praise.

To meet both groups of people, it’s smart to give positive feedback in the mix of negative feedback.

Negative feedback is okay, as long as it’s being delivered appropriately.

Therefore, if feedback is positive and constructive, it produces positive results.

If feedback is saturated in negativity, the outcome can only be negative.

Employees led by managers who focus on their weaknesses are 26% less likely not to be engaged in their work.

Another thing that leaders do that is different in this situation is, not relying on recognizable periods of time (annually or bi-annually) to give feedback.

I mean how can someone get better at something when they only hear about what they need to improve upon once a year?

When feedback is given and received more regularly, it will no longer hold as much intimidation as it does, making the process a lot easier.

Feedback will be thought about as a two-way discussion.

If you are at a company that has gone away with performance reviews, I sure hope that they still give their employees constructive feedback.

Companies that implement feedback have turnover rates 14.9% lower than companies that give no feedback.

The most simple and impactful thing a leader can do is to make sure each person feels valued.

Feedback is one way to do this because it allows employees to see and hear the value of what they do.