The Proof Is In The Platform

The world’s first employee engagement platform called Your Flock based on values. When using Your FLOCK, you have a better handle on team dynamics.

For example – let’s suppose it appears there’s a leader in your organisation who is executing a badly performing team and over several months, you begin to see the data that supports this. Thanks to Your FLOCK! Let’s also say that their awareness of this data isn’t enough, and you feel the need to get involved to give some feedback.

The problem is, many leaders don’t respond too well to feedback and it’s those people who are, in every other respect, your highest performers!

Many high performers have two primary drivers – pleasing others and being perfect; sometimes these occur together, sometimes alone.

People Pleasers

People who are driven to please others are often lively, enthusiastic, and outgoing.  It can be great having them as a team leader and employee, but they can be prone to emotional over-reactions when they feel they are falling short in the eyes of others.

Feelings first …

Giving feedback to one who likes to please others can be a tricky task.  Pitching in by commenting on their behaviour is not a good idea.  At the back of their minds their feelings of self-worth are incredibly tied up with how happy they feel others are with them. And with any sort of “cold”, behavioural feedback can make that employee feel very dejected – no matter how focused the Your FLOCK data is!

So, begin by allowing people pleasers to know that you care about their feelings.  The next step is to get them to explore their feelings in more depth – by asking questions. This gets them thinking, which is what you want. The more they think, they more they become self-aware and the more they become self-aware, the better they become at managing their own behaviour. It’s their acceptance that’s the key here – that’s the essential pre-condition for change.

Perfectionists

With people who are driven to be perfect, you’ll often find they are hard-working, diligent, and dependable and seem on the surface to be model corporate citizens. The problem may be that they are prone to over-work which may cause a burn out and anxiety.

And possibly even become workaholics.

The fewer mistakes they make, the more they think people value them.

Thoughts first …

Giving feedback that really lands with a perfectionist doesn’t start with commenting on behaviour either. Again, if they are doing the best they can, how will asking them to behave differently help? It’s much more likely to get a defended and resentful response. Start the feedback process by talking to them about what they think about how things are going.  Again, this is best achieved through open questions.

Then move onto feelings by continuing to ask questions.  This should start to connect feelings and thoughts together more and help them get over a sense of self-worth that’s defined pretty much solely by achievement.

Want to know more?

In the end, providing great feedback is about developing relationships and it’s not simply about following a process.

That could mean brushing up your skills in listening, coaching or conflict management. Perhaps our partners at Sixth Sense could help?

In the meantime, have a look at the great material that they have collected and put on sane.works or browse their flagship book – Staying Sane in Business.

Visit Your FLOCK to sign up for FREE and find out more about how the platform can help you manage employee engagement and how to keep your employees engaged.