Giving and Receiving in the Workplace

Most conventional wisdom holds that giving advice is always an effective motivator, yet recent research is indicating that receiving information can actually make people less confident. Nearly three-thirds of all participants reported that giving expert advice was more motivating than getting it for themselves. Yet in reality, receiving information was much more likely to lead to an improvement in confidence. In other words, receiving information actually works as a form of motivation, not as a source of motivation by itself.


According to Atkins, we all seek motivation from two sources - positive feedback from others and negative feedback from ourselves. The issue with negative feedback is that it's usually conditional. Rather than the intended recipient recognizing that the comment is related to poor performance, the comment may be interpreted as an attack. On the other hand, positive feedback provides the necessary context for the performance to improve, so it can provide motivation.

One of the most successful ways to give and receive advice when working in groups is to give guidance based on received feedback, while critically analyzing what was or wasn't done. In theory, you should always look back at your performance during a previous period to identify areas that need improvement. However, if you are giving advice to increase morale, then you must look beyond the individual performance to identify the group dynamics that led to poor performance.

Similarly, in theory, receiving bad news should decrease motivation, while telling a skilled employee to stay alert may increase motivation. In practice, many managers give advice to people that may have a shortcoming, but which are not relevant to the job. Thus, they are not as motivated as someone who receives good news. A common example is advice to increase work efficiency to increase productivity. However, the increased efficiency may only lead to increased costs and an increase in unemployment.

Communication is key in any work environment. When employees are communicating effectively with one another, they are more able to recognize when there is a problem, identify the problem, and develop solutions. For example, giving tips and feedback on an employee's appearance can lead to increased self-confidence, while receiving criticism can decrease self-confidence. Therefore, in order to effectively give and receive feedback in the workplace, you must learn how to receive feedback and how to give effective feedback.

Sometimes, giving effective feedback is just a matter of acknowledging the feedback given. This can be a difficult skill to learn, but can be one of the most important aspects of effective feedback. When a manager gives good feedback, he or she must first identify the feedback as relevant. A manager may say, "I really like the way you handled yourself in the last project." However, this comment is not relevant unless the manager has identified the quality that made the feedback relevant. For example, if a manager were to say, "Your communication skills were great in the last meeting," this comment would be highly relevant, but only if the manager had identified that communication was a quality that contributed to the positive outcome.

It is also necessary for managers to give effective feedback because it gives employees an opportunity to work on improving their communication and interpersonal skills. If employees feel like their communication is not well received, they will be motivated to improve. However, it is equally important for managers to give effective feedback. When a manager gives effective feedback, it is easy for the employee to recognize the problem and seek further clarification. Effective feedback gives employees a chance to know whether a problem warrants further attention and also enables them to adjust their behavior so that it no longer contributes to the negative outcome.

In the end, effective feedback is not as hard to give as it seems. Just make sure that you are giving it to the right people. Don't give it to everyone: choose your employees carefully, and monitor their behaviors. You can do this with covert observation, or by simply observing how they act in the workplace. The key is to get the right people to receive feedback, so that you can then provide them with further information and assistance so that they can become more effective communicators.