Effective Feedback—the importance of offering feedback to your team might well be the utmost skill needed for success in Retail. If you’re reluctant to do this, then your team will be left to figure things out for themselves or worse, have no standards set for their performance. We see this at retail every day--Poor retail experiences delivered due to the lack of leadership on the sales floor. On the other hand, there are managers whose idea of feedback is threats, shaming and impatience. Neither approach is effective. Great managers learn to deliver feedback while improving relationships and performance simultaneously. They’re not just team players, they’re actually team builders.

 Feedback: the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source (Merriam-Webster). In other words, feedback is an attempt to provide an evaluation of performance and instruction to improve it. 

 You probably know by now, that most people don’t like to be told a) they did something badly or, b) how they can improve. If you’ve played golf, this is the uninvited coaching from one of your foursome who says. “Here’s what you’re doing wrong, Dan…... No thanks. In the world of the backyard grill master, it’s the neighbor who offers, “You’re about to burn those steaks!” Back off big guy, this is my grill!

 I’m sure we can agree there’s a right way and wrong way to offer feedback. Here’s my take: Focus on “Activity, not results”. When you state—without judgement or opinion—what just happened, you are more likely to avoid offending. “Dan, you have broccoli in your teeth” , while not pleasant to hear, is better than, “What’s the matter, Dan, you don’t have an mirrors in your house?”

I have noticed over the years that many managers are reluctant to offer feedback. Here are some reasons why:

•They don’t feel qualified to offer suggestions

•They fear that the feedback could lead to resentment from the student

•They aren’t certain they know what to suggest

•They don’t know how

•They question themselves (“Who am I to offer a critique?”)

•They believe they must be an accomplished expert on the activity in order to coach it

Remember the (Gold Medal) 2012 US Olympic Basketball Team? LeBron James may well be the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. Standing next to him, at any Olympic basketball game, is Coach K, the famous Duke University Basketball coach and perennial Olympic “Dream Team” coach. Do you think Coach K is a better basketball player than LeBron James? Could he beat LeBron in a game of one-on-one? Was Coach K ever better than LeBron? No. In fact, Coach K didn’t even play in the NBA. More to the point, that doesn’t matter. Coach K is able to give feedback to LeBron because he is a great coach. He has perspective. He can see the game differently that LeBron can. He has insights and strategy.

Coaching the game is different than playing the game.

So, here’s how to do it:

1. State the Positives. Reinforce what you saw that was good and should be repeated. “Keep doing that!”
2. Identify the opportunities to improve. Success at this level is not random. Improving another person’s performance isn’t accidental. It happens only when the coach is prepared, knowledgeable, informed, and focused. You must be perceptive at listening, observing, and gathering all the information you can in order to identify what will bring about improvement. Without this obsessive commitment to self-development and research, you are no different than the casual golfer giving out free advice to his playing partners.
3. Get agreement on the way forward. Make sure the feedback is accepted and you’ll be working together on the new behaviors.

I’ve often heard trainers attempt to “soften the blow” or cushion the negative feedback by starting with something good. This is referred to as a “praise sandwich” (or worse!). In a praise sandwich, the trainer would start and end with a compliment and squeeze the actual criticism in between. This technique is tired, transparent, and it simply doesn’t work.

Here’s an example of a praise sandwich:

“Jennifer, I love what you did with your hair today, it really looks great. Your speech was disorganized and ineffective. But I really liked the way you projected your voice.”

This technique only serves to confuse the student and reduce your effectiveness. Instead, you should simply identify the actions that worked—what you want to see repeated—and call them out. Focus on the actions, not how you felt about them:

•Jennifer, your speech was exactly the right length. You finished in the time allowed.

•The opening to your speech was intriguing and had my attention right off the bat.

•Your voice tone and quality was appropriate for the room. I was able to hear you clearly from the back row.

Don’t dress it up or invent false praise. If your trainee did something that you want to see repeated, just call it out. Nothing more is needed.

To be successful as a Retail Manager, you must master the art of Feedback. Embracing this skill will set you apart and guarantee that you can be counted on to make those around you better.