Leaders often depend heavily on key team members to get things done and deliver results important to the team.
These team members play such a critical role in the success of the team that keeping them motivated and eager to perform is crucial for the leader.
Anything that may demotivate or discourage the team member is risky. What if they feel unsupported and cop a negative attitude? Worse, what if they decide to leave the team?
Unfortunately, when team members critical to team success, and who are temporarily irreplaceable, need to be held accountable or confronted for bad behavior, leaders typically avoid the tough message. Why take the chance?
Delivering results is critically important on every team. Those team members who perform well but step outside the lines of acceptable behavior sometimes get away with murder.
They are often allowed to engage in behavior that would instantly be called out if anyone else replicated it. But leaders purposely withhold the criticism so as not to potentially rock their world.
Sadly, the consequences are real.
A leader who looks the other way or avoids delivering much-needed feedback to an “indispensable” team member often finds that the negative issues become amplified.
The lack of accountability isn’t missed by other team members either. The double standards undermine the leader’s credibility with the rest of the team.
The real problem is that leaders too often treat tough feedback as a risk to the relationship, when it is the lack of feedback that creates the bigger risk.
Feedback is essential precisely because these team members are so indispensable. Without it, they will be less critical to success in the future.
So, good leaders don’t duck giving feedback, but they offer it in smaller packages.
The shift for leaders is to stop making criticism and feedback a big event. Feedback feels heavy if it happens too infrequently.
Small, fast suggestions and recommendations address issues without feeling threatening. Addressing the smallest examples and instances normalizes criticism.
Good leaders make feedback specific to a minor event and keep up the frequency. Team members rarely resist a steady flow of small suggestions. But they almost always bristle at a drama-filled feedback conversation that is long overdue.
The cadence of feedback changes how indispensable team members receive it. Leaders who maintain a constant flow of advice and suggestion keep small matters from becoming big ones.
When the rhythm of support, appreciation, and recommendation combine to create an ongoing melody of perspective and insight, team members grow, and leaders find the courage — to say more.
They soon realize that bite-sized feedback beats “big talk” feedback every time.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
