In today’s fast-paced work environment, the ability to adapt quickly and efficiently is crucial for both individual and organizational success. One key component in achieving this adaptability is the practice of providing and receiving real-time feedback. Unlike traditional feedback methods, which often occur weeks or even months after the fact, real-time feedback is immediate and actionable, offering numerous benefits that can drive significant improvements in performance and morale.
Real-time feedback is more than just a tool for improving performance—it’s a vital element of a healthy and productive workplace culture. By enhancing learning, boosting motivation, and fostering collaboration, real-time feedback helps organizations and individuals navigate the complexities of the modern work environment more effectively.
Shockingly, most managers do not give meaningful feedback on a regular basis, but wait until formal reviews to give helpful guidance on ways to improve. It’s one of the true differences between a coach and a manager. A manager looks for trends and responds to them. A coach immediately addresses issues and makes corrections before bad actions become trends and reinforces good behavior so that it strengthens.
Give feedback immediately when you see it occurring by giving five different points of feedback to team members each day for a full week. It can positive or negative, but the idea is to begin to condition yourself to look for ways to offer real-time feedback to those around you.
The Importance of Feedback to Different Generations:
I’ve heard a lot from managers about young workers who just “need too much reassurance,” especially as it relates to Millennials. They feel like they are handholding rather than coaching. “I don’t have time to tell them every few minutes about what a good job they’re doing. I’ve got real work to do.”
I suggest that coaching is the real job of managers. That is the real work. I know it can make a huge difference because it did for me.
Feedback in sports is pure and transparent. As previously mentioned, it is abundantly clear what your job is and what expectations the coaches have. In football, you get feedback in multiple forms and in real time on the field after every play in some way—on the sidelines from your coach, from the fans in the crowd, and sometimes from your fellow players. The next day, you get a report card from your coach where he has graded every one of your plays. Then, you watch a film where you validate the report card by reviewing your best work—and your worst mistakes—over and over. And you get evaluated by reporters, boosters, and fans in public forums. (Not as much fun as it sounds.) That feedback follows the same principles I stated in Chapter 8 that every employee needs: what are the expectations, how are you doing, and what are the things you need to improve.
Millennials are famous for wanting lots of feedback from their employers. Surveys have shown that Millennials want feedback fifty percent more often than other employees. They also say that their number-one source of development is their manager, but only forty-six percent agreed that their managers delivered on their expectations for feedback.
Your workers crave feedback, but they’re not necessarily asking you directly for it. Gallup research reported that only fifteen percent of millennial workers “strongly agree” that they ask for routine feedback. It may be because their managers equate asking with neediness. That’s what performance evaluations are for, after all.
The Gallup survey found that only nineteen percent of millennials say they receive routine feedback. An even smaller percentage of millennials (seventeen percent) say the feedback they do receive is meaningful. Over half of millennials say they meet with their managers only once a month or so.
In contrast, Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2015 and who have recently entered the workforce, see Millennials as having been coddled. They also need feedback, but a different kind. They want direct feedback in real time. They believe themselves to be stronger and able to handle direct and relevant feedback. They are prime for coaching.
For both Millennials and Generation Z, formalizing the feedback is important. Part of that comes from the way they communicate. Ever been part of a multigenerational group text exchange? Next time you do, notice the way the different generations respond. Send out a text with a basic statement such as “The press release will go out tomorrow at 7 am.” Some of the Boomer or Generation X generations will not respond at all. Why should they? You have sent the text, so you can expect they have read it. They assume you don’t need reassurance that they are paying attention to what you send. Generation Y and some Millennials may come back with a nice comment filled with proper capitalization and punctuation: “Thanks!” “Appreciate it!” “Looking forward to reading it tomorrow!” But Generation Z? They will heart or thumbs up every single text message you send. And when they send a text, if you don’t heart that baby right back, they will often reach out with “Did you see my text message?”
Umm, yes? It was a pretty clear statement—did you need a response?
The simple answer is yes. Yes, they did.
Both Millennials and Generation Z have grown up in a much more informal society than past generations; a large amount of their everyday communication comes through text messaging or apps like Snapchat. To break through the clutter of the communications reaching them, they need direct contact so the message doesn’t get lost in the noise. They value in-person meetings or phone/video calls because they make them feel respected. Scheduling a daily or weekly meeting to offer feedback and coaching may go a long way to helping them improve, satisfy their need for feedback, and increase their happiness with their relationship with management.
Millennials love being part of a team. Generation Z is more about individualized performance. But what do they all have in common? They appreciate inspiration. Generation Z is the most socially minded generation in the workforce. They want to feel like their work matters. They want to feel good about their work and what they are trying to accomplish. (But, really, what generation doesn’t?) They are perfectly suited for coaching because they respond well to real-time feedback, quick course corrections, and small nudges. They love small praise that proves you’ve seen and appreciated their efforts.
In my staffing company, we have a group text of fifteen of us on one chat. The members in this group range in age from twenty-two to sixty-three. This group chat is our instantaneous response to performance. If someone places a candidate with a client company, they share it in the chat. Almost immediately, there are fourteen shouts or praises or heart emojis for the announcement. If someone struggles with an issue, there are fourteen responses from people sharing their own story offering advice or helping to laugh it off. This is the team response that we all love, no matter what generation we’re from.
Coaching in sports happens every moment the players and coaches are together. Coaches yell and cheer and clap, often after every single play. I can still hear their voices coaching up my football team years ago:
Made a good block?
Nice work!
Gained a couple more yards?
Way to keep chopping those legs! Great effort!
Missed a reception?
You have to get more separation from the safety! (Clap, clap, clap)
Down by three points with a few minutes left in the football game?
Follow the game plan! Let’s play our game. Get the first down and then get the next! Pretty soon we’ll be in the end zone.
Encouragement. Correction. Praise. Reassurance. Connection and reconnection to the vision. That’s coaching—and it is as easy to do in the workplace as it is out on the field.
Feedback, in real time, is what makes people better every day and every week. This type of management coaching helps them change course when they’re getting off track. It helps them unlearn bad habits or prevents them from forming them in the first place.
Thinking like a coach means thinking like the late great basketball coach Pat Summitt: “Most people get excited about games, but I’ve got to be excited about practice, because that’s my classroom.
