Telling people how we think they should improve actually hinders learning, the Harvard Business Review reports. The brain grows more in areas of strength, meaning that focusing on employees’ shortcomings can impair learning.
Based on this knowledge, here are four tips to improve communication with employees and help your team succeed.
1. Look for outcomes. Excellence is an outcome. Whenever an employee does something that did well, stop and highlight it by saying, "That! Yes, that!" This emphasizes a pattern that already exists within your employee, but now they can recognize it, anchor it and re-create it, according to the Harvard Business Review.
2. Be aware of instinctive reactions. The Harvard Business Review recommends not telling someone "Good job!" because you are not the authority of what an objectively good performance is and your employees know this. Instead, describe your experience noticing their excellent work. Use phrases such as "This is how that came across for me," or "Did you see what you did there?"
3. Never lose sight of your goal. Team leaders have plenty of problems that demand attention and require action. Instinct urges you to tell someone what they did was wrong and instruct them how to fix it. The Harvard Business Review recommends instead focusing on excellent performance. Telling someone what they did wrong inhibits learning and, ultimately, does not improve performance.
4. Explore the present. When people come to you asking for feedback on their performance, it can help to ask your employee three things that are currently working for them. Getting someone to think about specific things that are going well can alter their brain chemistry so they're open to new solutions.
To read the full report, click here.
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Based on this knowledge, here are four tips to improve communication with employees and help your team succeed.
1. Look for outcomes. Excellence is an outcome. Whenever an employee does something that did well, stop and highlight it by saying, "That! Yes, that!" This emphasizes a pattern that already exists within your employee, but now they can recognize it, anchor it and re-create it, according to the Harvard Business Review.
2. Be aware of instinctive reactions. The Harvard Business Review recommends not telling someone "Good job!" because you are not the authority of what an objectively good performance is and your employees know this. Instead, describe your experience noticing their excellent work. Use phrases such as "This is how that came across for me," or "Did you see what you did there?"
3. Never lose sight of your goal. Team leaders have plenty of problems that demand attention and require action. Instinct urges you to tell someone what they did was wrong and instruct them how to fix it. The Harvard Business Review recommends instead focusing on excellent performance. Telling someone what they did wrong inhibits learning and, ultimately, does not improve performance.
4. Explore the present. When people come to you asking for feedback on their performance, it can help to ask your employee three things that are currently working for them. Getting someone to think about specific things that are going well can alter their brain chemistry so they're open to new solutions.
To read the full report, click here.
More articles on dental:
3 things to know about the dental imaging market
Oral health nonprofits team up to educate dentists on cleft patients
Massachusetts DSO makes 3 new affiliations