*The Priviledge of Delivering Negative Feedback is Earned*
By delivering positive feedback. Good relationships are based on positivity and no manager whose feedback isn’t primarily positive is maximizing output. Remember, as a leader who is admired and respected positive feedback inspires your directs.
*Positive Feedback is Harder Than Negative Feedback*
For the grand moral judge inside your head, positive performance might mean “doing your job” while negative performance is “not doing your job”. Positive feedback is then very hard to earn and negative feedback comes after every minor stumble. That’s backwards. It takes real discipline not to move onto the next battle after small wins. Positive feedback requires me to pause, zoom out and talk to a direct about positive performance. My greatest weakness as a manager is not doing this enough.
There’s also the fear that too much positive feedback raises a direct’s expectations of compensation and advancement. That happened to me, actually, and I realized that I didn’t understand what drove advancement within my own firm. So I figured it out, clarified it with the direct, and now feedback in advancement-related skill development is special stuff. I love handing that out.
Not Unreasonable 