Feedback from Introverted employees

A manager must recognize that each of the team member is different in terms of personality. Some employees are outspoken and some speak less.

Introverted employees can be provide valuable feedback when managers learn how to manage the feedback process. Guidelines for managers are:

  1. Internalize silence - Managers can experience an awkward silence during the 1:1 meeting and they should learn to be comfortable with such silence.
  2. Explain the purpose - Managers should set the context for 1:1 meeting with a statement like "your feedback will be really helpful to me..."
  3. Stick to the agenda - Managers should try and avoid questions that are not part of the agenda. This will help the employee cover all the agenda items.
  4. Be specific - Questions to introverted employee should be very specific. Broad questions like "how could we do better?" will put pressure on the employee to articulate a lot of thinking to few words or sentences.
  5. Brevity is not bad - Responses from introverted employees to the questions asked can be brief. Managers should practice to deconstruct brief responses from employees to understand the underlying feedback.
  6. Follow-up - An important tool for a manager to earn the trust of an introverted employee is to follow-up on the action items. This will make the employee comfortable in sharing feedback in the future 1:1 meetings
  7. Share vulnerabilities - Another important tool for a manager to earn the trust of an introverted employee is to share vulnerabilities. For example, ask "I think the presentation did not go well. I wish I could do more.."
Wait! Before you go!

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