A recent issue of Workforce Week shares the results of a nuanced piece of data on performance feedback, from the Gallup organization. They surveyed 1000 US employees, placing them into three groups based on whether they felt their supervisor gave feedback focused on their strengths, their weaknesses, or neither (the latter group they called “ignored”).
Of the group that said their boss focused on strengths, 61% were “engaged” in their work. 45% of those reporting a boss who attended primarily to their weaknesses were engaged but, at the same time, 22% were “actively disengaged.” Except for the appearance of the actively disengaged group, focusing on areas to be development or turned around didn’t do too much damage.
But here’s the shocker. Look at the right hand column, reflecting employees whose boss essentially ignored both strong and weak points, in other words, giving no meaningful feedback at all. Virtually none of these (2%) were engaged and the rest were either neutral or disengaged.
“But, wait a minute,” you say, “maybe engaged employees, the keeners, are more inclined to see their boss as noticing and commenting on their strengths. Besides, since they are engaged, they probably are demonstrating their best talents on the job anyway. Their boss is just noticing what’s clearly evident.” This, of course, is the classic question with a correlation between two variables: which one is influencing which?
Let’s not go there. Instead, just consider the consequences of not giving your people any concrete feedback to speak of. It can severely dampen your employees’ level of engagement in their work. With all the data out there linking employee engagement to business results, we are talking lost productivity and creativity–big time!
25% of that “ignored” group of employees had a boss who gave no feedback. I hope you wouldn’t have been one of them.
© 2010, Ian Cook. All rights reserved.
About Ian Cook
Ian is an experienced presenter, group facilitator and executive coach. Through his keynote presentations, highly interactive workshops, and custom-designed team-building practice, he helps his clients leverage their investment in their managers and teams. 
