The Receiving Positive Feedback
Do you feel you’re getting the most you can out of the positive feedback you receive? When your performance review comes around it can be a great relief to receive positive feedback. Receiving appreciation for your work can be a great motivator, automatically boosting your morale. owever, many people fail to take full advantage of the significant resources positive feedback can provide. Some may feel hesitant to accept recognition, feeling modest about their achievements. Others may be good at accepting appreciation but fail to process it effectively. As a manager it’s particularly important that you learn how to use positive feedback to benefit your career and your team.
The link between your positive feedback and employee engagement Gallup’s 2015 report, State of the American Manager: Analytics and Advice for eaders, revealed that of US managers are not engaged at work. This can greatly impact their employees in what Gallup calls the “cascade effect . They found that employees who are supervised by highly engaged managers are more likely to be engaged at work. Employee engagement is not simply about being happy but about feeling committed to your company and caring about your work. Positive feedback is one of the strongest ways of promoting company loyalty amongst employees, with valuing recognition from their managers over monetary rewards. Even if you feel hesitant accepting it, you have to admit it feels good to be appreciated for your work. You may confuse this for vanity, but it’s actually a natural reaction that occurs when your brain releases dopa35 23
mine. Dopamine is what causes the overall feeling of satisfaction you have when you’ve achieved your goal. Whether caused by low self-esteem or perfectionist tendencies, when receiving a compliment some people fight against this feeling and try to de ect the positive comments they’ve received. Constantly seeing your work in a negative light will bring down your confidence. What you may not realize is that failing to accept that feeling of satisfaction can actually impact the quality of your work and by consequence, the effectiveness of your employees. New research suggests that dopamine may actually be a great motivator. While previously linked only to pleasure sensors in the brain, researchers at the Universitat aume I of Castell n have found evidence that high levels of dopamine can actually encourage us to act and persevere to achieve goals.
Using your feedback to tap into your strengths If you learn how to analyze and use positive feedback to your advantage, you can gain valuable insights into your professional strengths. esearcher and applied psychology expert Michelle Mc uaid has been at the forefront of what has been called the ‘Strengths Revolution’. Through her research she has demonstrated the effectiveness of focusing on improving professional strengths over weaknesses. The rationale behind this shift is the motivation that employees feel when their efforts and abilities are recognized. According to McQuaid’s research, of managers who can name their employees strengths are more likely to have employees who are engaged and energized. A Gallup study has supported these findings, revealing that managers who are focused on strengths are more 24