7 Powerful Strategies for Giving Feedback to High Performers: How to Inspire Loyalty and Cultivate a Performance-Driven Team
Your top performers arent getting enough feedback.
And youll lose them if you dont change that.
Counterintuitively, its difficult to give feedback to top performers. But these growth-minded people crave it and its easy to fix if you know what to do.
Why leaders avoid it:
🔺 Intimidated by the skills of high performers 🔺 Prioritize giving feedback to low performers 🔺 Assume that high performers can self-correct 🔺 Struggle to constructively critique high performers 🔺 Believe that high performers dont require feedback 🔺 Fear that feedback might demotivate high performers
Giving feedback to high performers takes some special handling.
Focus your feedback sessions by splitting your conversations up into the following:
𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
High performers sometimes dont get enough appreciation. Everyone comes to them for help and assumes theyll deliver.
Set the tone by showing true appreciation. When they see you recognize their contributions, theyll drop their defenses and be open to incremental feedback.
𝗕𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲
High performers already know their weaknesses and are probably working on them. Start there.
Ask what they are working to improve and what theyve tried already. Help them see new angles on their problems, or just keep asking questions.
You might lead them into giving feedback to themselves.
𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 & 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀
Even top performers have blind spots, and this is a common one. Either head down crushing their day-to-day work. Or too focused on long-term career goals.
Help short-term champions see more long-term possibilities. Set goals for annual output, new responsibilities, and career paths.
Help your long-term heroes see more value in the day-to-day. This might look like a back-to-basics conversation. Or maybe delegation and skills development if the day-to-day isnt challenging anymore.
Dont shy away from giving feedback to top performers.
Prioritize it.
These individuals with a continuous growth mindset will love it. And as a modern leader, its your job to give it to them.
Theyll reward you with loyalty and inspire a culture of performance in your team.
Have you seen this mistake in any of your jobs? Let me know!
