Feedback is essential. To improve performance, our employees need to know where they are going wrong, so they can avoid problems in the future. To stay motivated, our employees need to know what they are doing right, so they can keep doing it. This is why our best employees want more feedback. This is why our worst employees need more feedback.

David Patient, Academic Director at The Lisbon MBA

Don’t ever forget that your most important job as a manager is to improve the performance of your employees. In giving feedback, focus on three specific goals. First, the person receiving the feedback needs to understand it. Second, the feedback needs to be accepted as fair and reasonable. Third, the way the feedback is provided should motivate employees to change and improve their behavior.

Here are 10 ways to make giving feedback easier, more powerful, and more effective.

1. BE CLEAR. Above all, make sure your main point is understood.
2. FOCUS ON SPECIFIC BEHAVIORS. Behaviors can be changed; personality can not.
3. BUILD UP TO NEGATIVE FEEDBACK. Start with something positive.
4. LISTEN AND EXPLORE. Ask for their view on why a problem is happening.
5. BE PROMPT. Feedback is most powerful when it immediately follows behavior.
6. BE COURAGEOUS. Don’t avoid the conversation by delegating negative feedback.
7. PREFER FACE-TO-FACE. In person feedback is more interactive, sensitive, and likely to be accepted.
8. USE A PROBLEM-SOLVING APPROACH. Show employees you are working together with them.
9. GIVE FEEDBACK FREQUENTLY. Make it more frequent, less formal and threatening.
10. ACCEPT FEEDBACK. Be open to feedback yourself, and accept your share of responsibility.

Receiving feedback and changing behavior can be difficult for employees. Giving feedback can be difficult for managers. But if you focus on your three goals, and try to use the strategies above, you will be more successful in motivating employees to improve their performance.