A few weeks ago I delivered the Feedback Fitness workshop to a group of Leaders.

In one activity we shared, the leaders were provided with a set of cards with over 50 different emotions / states.  I asked them to select their top five answers in response to this statement:

‘It’s important our people feel this during feedback conversations’.

We used the context of feedback in general, so didn’t specify if we were talking about the leader or the direct report, the person offering the feedback or the receiver. I recorded all their responses and here are the top five, in order of most selected:

1. Confident

2. Supported

3. Helpful

4. Open-minded

5. Encouraged

We then got more specific and the leaders were asked to select emotions / states in response to this statement:

‘It’s important our people don’t feel this when receiving feedback’.

Here are the top five, in order of most selected:

1. Unappreciated

2. Confused

3. Powerless

4. Intimidated

5. Insecure

By far the most commonly selected response was Unappreciated.  It was selected twice the amount of times as the next emotion, confused.  In the Feedback Fitness Framework, you can use the Warm Up phase to ask in what way your direct reports like to feel appreciated, the ‘Work Out’ phase to communicate your appreciation, and the Cool Down phase to check in that they are feeling appreciated.

Questions to ask yourself:

• How appreciated do your direct reports feel? To what degree? How do you know? Have you had a Warm Up conversation to explore this with them?
  

• How can you ensure your direct reports feel appreciated?
  

• To what degree are you feeling appreciated?