Key Takeaways:
- Upward feedback improves relationships between managers and employees, reveals blindspots, mitigates bias, and leads to improved performance
- Best practices include exhibiting respect and professionalism, providing specific examples, and offering solutions in feedback
- Employees should tailor praise and constructive criticism to their individual relationship with their leader
What Is Upward Feedback?
Upward feedback is an opportunity for employees to share their perceptions of, and experiences with, various leaders within their organization. Upward feedback allows employees to share these thoughts directly with more senior managers and leaders..
Performance reviews and 360-degree feedback are the 2 most likely formats for soliciting upward feedback. The purpose of this type of feedback is to grow leaders by providing insight into how their management skills and leadership styles are being perceived by more junior team members.
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Why is Upward Feedback Important?
Collecting and providing manager feedback during a performance review via a 360 review process is important. The presence of upward feedback points to a workplace culture that has embraced transparency and values continuous improvement. The list below highlights why high-performing organizations engage in upward feedback practices:
1. Improves Manager/Employee Relationships
Opening the door for junior employees to freely share their opinions about their direct manager(s) increases trust between the employee and manager. It also encourages mutual accountability. When feedback shifts from a monologue to a dialogue, it creates workplace relationships that are rooted in mutual respect.
2. Reveals Potential Blindspots
Leaders are often promoted with little to no management training before or during their leadership tenure.Prooviding manager feedback during a performance review gives insight to managers so they can grow, improve, and follow up on to ensure they reach their leadership potential. Teams that make feedback an ongoing practice help to eliminate managers’ blind spots by gathering feedback at every corner of the organization.
3. Mitigates Bias
Collecting feedback from every level of the organization holds greater significance than solely relying on feedback from peers. By exclusively gathering peer-to-peer feedback, there is a risk of overlooking the interactions between leaders and their subordinates, which can introduce bias into the feedback process.
4. Leads to Better Team Performance
Welcoming honest, constructive feedback for and from everyone in the organization highlights strengths and identifies growth areas. Bringing development opportunities to light ensures the team is acutely aware of how to increase productivity and improve performance at the individual, team, and organizational levels. With an understanding that team members can and should learn from each other, regardless of seniority, it sets the tone for a healthy, humble culture.
Best Practices of Upward Performance Appraisal
There are a few best practices to consider before employees share upward feedback with managers, up-level managers, and top executives.
- Share your own opinions, not heresy from other team members.
- Always exhibit respect and professionalism.
- Provide specific examples in your feedback. Avoid general and ambiguous statements.
- Be clear about your expectations and needs/desires from your leader. Don’t leave them guessing how to best help you.
- Aim to offer a solution with your constructive feedback. Avoid complaining or voicing a problem without proposing a way to resolve it.
- Provide praise as much as you can. Constructive feedback is better received when the recipient knows their efforts are noted and appreciated.
Below, we’ve compiled 12 practical examples of upward feedback, each highlighting one instance of praise and one of constructive criticism. While these examples are generalized, it’s essential to tailor them to your specific relationship with your leaders, capturing the nuances of your interactions.
Upward Feedback To Managers Examples
1. Workload
Praise: I greatly appreciate that my current workload is conducive to a healthy balance of work and life outside of work. You have done a great job of delegating responsibilities appropriately and helping me to prioritize tasks. You keep my personal and family needs front of mind and I am grateful for that!
Constructive Criticism: Though I understand this is our busy season and client demands have been higher than normal, my workload has become increasingly difficult to manage. I fully anticipate the occasional need to work longer and harder hours but the current workload I have been given is unsustainable. I would appreciate a conversation where we could brainstorm ways to potentially delegate certain tasks to other team members, assign levels of urgency to tasks, etc.
2. Communication
Praise: Your expectations of all of us on the team are crystal clear. I rarely, if ever, struggle to understand what you are asking me to accomplish. I leave each of our one-on-ones with clarity and attainable action items. If I ever do need clarification or have questions, you are quick to respond with the right amount of detail.
Constructive Criticism: I recognize you have been pulled in multiple directions recently but I have been struggling to understand what you need from me. It has been difficult to pin you down and get answers to my questions about upcoming projects. I would like to propose scheduling 15-20 minutes together every Monday to help set the tone for the week and align on deliverables that are most important.
3. Coaching and Development
Praise: I am so appreciative of how invested you have been in my professional development. You have been intentional about developing my strengths, coaching my weaknesses, and charting a path forward to help me reach my career goals. Our check-in meetings have a good balance of highlighting what I am doing well and guiding me in areas that could use some work.
Constructive Criticism: It should be noted that you are both a people manager and still have a full-time job, so I completely understand the difficulty in balancing those two things. However, I would like the opportunity to discuss my career goals with you more often. I feel as though my professional growth has remained stagnant and I would appreciate your insights as my leader moving forward.
4. Team Unity/Morale
Praise: Your ability to champion our collective strengths as a team and galvanize company-wide initiatives has created a positive, engaged environment for us. Trust, respect, and accountability are all present in this group and I attribute that to your leadership style. Your willingness to listen and boldness in guiding/coaching our actions have led us to be the most productive we have been as a team unit.
Constructive Criticism: Since the latest organizational changes were implemented, our team morale has taken a big hit. I have noticed a decrease in our communication and feelings of stress and overwhelm are beginning to surface. I think it may be a good idea to plan a team outing or team development session soon where we can all break away from work for a few hours and remember we are on the same team. Your leadership and guidance in this area would be greatly appreciated.
5. Management Style
Praise: It is evident that your management style is producing positive outcomes for our team. I appreciate the autonomy you promote by not micromanaging our work and leaving room for us to try new things and learn from our mistakes. I have personally felt appreciated for my efforts and know that if I have questions or concerns, I can come to you with them at any time and you will lend a listening ear.
Constructive Criticism: Though I do not envy your position as a people leader, I would be remiss if I did not share how your management style is being perceived. I often feel like my work is observed under a microscope and if it is not perfect, I will be harshly reprimanded. I have found myself feeling more stressed and tense than usual and would like the opportunity to discuss these feelings face-to-face soon. Perhaps we could find some practical ways for you to stay informed about my deliverables without me feeling as though I am being watched all day.
6. Delegation of Tasks
Praise: I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am to have a leader who understands the strengths of their team well enough to know how to delegate tasks appropriately. I feel as though my talents are being used on a daily basis, and therefore feel accomplished and satisfied at the end of each workday. Even when I occasionally have to work later than normal, I am not struggling with burnout because you have made a concerted effort to keep the workload balanced and strengths-specific.
Constructive Criticism: Recently it feels as though tasks are being unfairly distributed to those of us who have a stronger work ethic. While I appreciate you recognizing my grit and hard work, I have to be honest in sharing that project expectations appear to be unbalanced with certain team members. It would be helpful to discuss tangible ways to disperse the workload a bit.
Partner with WorkDove to Provide Effective Upward Feedback
WorkDove offers a user-friendly way to gather upward feedback with our 360 feedback tool. Flexible templates, customizable questions, and automated workflows allow for best-in-class upward feedback to help all team members grow to their ultimate potential. Enhance your organization’s 360 review process by analyzing manager feedback during a performance review with powerful reports and dashboards that lead to more informed personnel decisions. If you are ready to fuel a culture of transparency and create an environment that values continuous growth, learn about WorkDove’s upward feedback options today!
