Some leaders allow incidents to build up and wait until the performance appraisal review time to discuss them with direct reports or team members.

Providing constructive feedback on an ongoing basis may present opportunities to develop and grow team members. For example, if an incident occurs, instead of waiting until the performance appraisal time to discuss it, you may provide constructive feedback immediately and suggest ways in which the team member can improve. According to a study conducted by Waddoups (2022), participants who received more frequent feedback had higher levels of productive effort intensity than those who did not. Immediate constructive feedback may even provide your team member with opportunities to improve before his/her performance evaluation.

Employees can also seek feedback to help them improve their own performance. Although the dynamics of the leader-member relationship may influence results, (Lam et al., 2017) posit that even employees with low leader-member exchange can benefit from seeking feedback and focus on using information gained to improve their performance.Whether initiated from leaders’ or team members’ perspectives, the value of constructive feedback can be immeasurable.

The more you know…

Lam, L., Peng, K., Wong, C.-S., & Lau, D. (2017, September). Is more feedback seeking always better? Leader-member exchange moderates the relationship between feedback-seeking behavior and performance. Journal of Management , 43(7), 2005-2403.

Waddoups, N. (2022, September). Feedback-driven time segmenting: The effect of feedback frequency on employee behavior. Contemporary Accounting Research , 39(3), 1509-2233.

Williams, C. (2022). Management (12 ed.). Boston: Cengage.