When you assume an authoritative role at your business, it means that you have a lot of responsibilities. For business owners, managers and supervisors, the employees at your company operate “on your watch”, meaning that you have to account for their performances, whether they’re good or bad. This is why feedback that goes both ways is so important.
Naturally, it’s important for you to communicate to your team members about the various things they need to change in order to improve in their roles. And don’t forget, positive reinforcements are just as necessary. It’s up to you to deliver praise when it is due. The importance of employee morale should never be understated. However, as mentioned, you are also in need of feedback. How else will you know how well you’re doing at your job?
What is the value of upward feedback?
It’s always good to get a fresh perspective. Hearing directly from the people under you is probably the best way to distinguish your strengths from your weaknesses. Your first required trait is an ability to be open and honest – not just with your employees, but with yourself. Are you willing to make changes to better your ability to lead your team? Do you accept that there is room for your own growth?
Your openness with your team will play a huge role in your ability to improve as a business owner, manager or supervisor. This is because the majority of employees don’t tend to give feedback to their superiors. Too often, they lack confidence and/or fear repercussion for being honest about what they’re not particularly happy with. It’s important to remember that a happy staff is a productive staff. Instilling a confidence in your team so that it can approach you with honest feedback is only bound to boost sales and improve customer satisfaction at your business.
How can you encourage your employees to speak up?
The first, and perhaps, most obvious way to elicit honest feedback from your employees is to simply ask for it. It’s wise to have regular one-on-one feedback sessions with your staff members, anyways. Be sure to let them know that they are free to ask you questions and offer their opinions about the way things are done at your place of business. It cannot be stressed enough that to get the best performances out of your workers, they must feel like what they have to say matters.
It’s also a good idea to present examples of how feedback helps to better your company. Bring up specific times when some tips or advice were passed your way and you implemented the ideas in efforts to make improvements for the business. Again, when employees feel that their words and actions matter, they will be a lot more open to offering feedback.
At MeloTel, we’re very confident that we offer the ultimate feedback tool!
The Monitor/Whisper Control Panel is a dream come true for owners, managers and supervisors of call centres. It allows you to listen in to calls live and as they happen. You can “whisper” information to your reps without the other parties on the lines hearing you, enabling an immediate form of feedback. The feature even allows you to “barge in” to calls if it’s absolutely necessary!
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
