Reasons you should give feedback to managers in 2023

As leaders and managers, you frequently feel like you are the primary driver of your organization’s performance and growth activities. While you are responsible for establishing a feedback culture inside the firm, your success is totally dependent on managers and employees accepting and owning it. While more or less, every organization understands the importance of giving feedback to employees. However, when it comes to the topic of feedback for managers, the majority of organizations tend to underestimate its significance. 

Managers, like employees, require feedback. The manager-employee relationship is a two-way street; one cannot exist without the other, and employees are rarely given the opportunity to communicate their preferences to their bosses. Prioritize employees and give bosses more authority. It’s one of the straightforward secrets of any prosperous business. The only way to live up to this purpose is to establish a culture where employees have the freedom to give feedback to managers. It may become second nature for leaders to provide feedback to those they supervise in order to influence behavior and improve the performance of teams and individuals. Still, it may be less natural for leaders to solicit and act upon feedback from others. 

According to multiple studies, leaders who solicited and used input from subordinates were rated substantially higher than those who did not. As crucial to the growth of a leader as water is to a plant, bidirectional feedback provides several advantages for effective leaders.

Importance of bi-directional feedback 

Giving feedback is simple in theory but far more difficult in practice. Although delivering positive feedback for managers can be challenging initially, it is critical not to wait too long. Feedback for managers given too late will allow the problem to persist, and it will mean less to the management when it is finally given. 

1. A collaborative environment

Team members immediately determine whether leadership is interested in what they think. If not, bitterness and estrangement are common outcomes. However, when leaders solicit and respond to input, teams become more involved and work harder to achieve success, and trust is developed. This will be enabled in your organization when your culture allows feedback for managers by their teams and employees. 

2. Establishes mutual respect

When your employees give feedback to managers increases the respect of everyone as your employees feel valued and are allowed to send upward feedback. An attitude of collaboration and mutual respect allows ideas to be openly shared, leading to increased invention and better problem-solving quality. If you want to bring everyone on the same page by allowing feedback for managers and employees from each other, it will bring a lot of success to your business. 

3. Creates better work culture 

As every organizational leader knows, being honest to give feedback to managers helps to avoid repeating mistakes and lowers errors caused by miscommunicated instructions on both the employee and manager sides. Correcting work saves time and reduces the feeling of regret from any mistakes. Listening to and acting on feedback fosters sentiments of trust and honesty, resulting in stronger working relationships. Hence, an organization where feedback for managers is a common practice typically excels and achieves its desired growth and objectives. 

4. Promotes consistent development and growth

The feedback process isn’t limited to just when you give feedback to managers. Listening to feedback is also a crucial action that will help you and the organization to do better. Employee feedback provides varied viewpoints on what may be improved and what can be done differently, hopefully delivering better results. Some may perceive feedback as criticism, but it may also be viewed as a tool to confront underperformance constructively and utilize it as motivation to enhance performance in the future. Therefore, it is vital that managers don’t hesitate to ask for feedback from their employees as this should be considered to be a normal business activity. 

5. Workforce feels valued

Putting what you learn from employee feedback into action is one of the reasons why experts recommend encouraging your employees to give feedback to managers. Feedback to managers can inspire a direct response or action, which is especially crucial if it concerns an existing issue. Direct action produces a win-win situation in which management can build trust with employees while employees can see they can rely on their management. In this manner, if an issue arises in the future, employees will know that the first step to resolving it is to bring it to management’s attention.

6. Boosts employee engagement

Employees should be treated the same way firms listen to and act on customer input. Listening to what employees have to say opens lines of communication, gives the importance of their perspective and contributes to their sense of belonging in the firm. According to Deloitte’s 2020 Global Human Capital Trends report, elements that contribute to establishing a sense of belonging at work include employees feeling comfortable, connected, and able to contribute to meaningful organizational outcomes. Employees with a sense of belonging in their workplace perform better and are more likely to stay with their employer. This is why your employees should have the freedom to give feedback to managers. 

Now that you are familiar with the culture of feedback, speak to the experts today to improve the feedback culture in your organization.