Many business owners recognize the importance of constructive feedback. However, they often do not understand the full value of candor. What is candor in the workplace? Candor is the quality of being open and honest in expression. Candid communication allows you to give and get the information you need to improve your team’s performance and professional growth. If business owners nurture a work environment that facilitates candor amongst employees, these owners would have the greatest constructive feedback loop.
The Advantages of Candor
Candor can generate so much power.
For starters, if it were normal and commonplace to be frank in the workplace, employees would push each other to higher performance levels. How? Well, quite frankly, constructive feedback is constructive. It is about learning how to adjust processes and procedures to develop and implement the best way to do something.
Secondly, candor boosts company morale when done the right way. If everyone is open and honest with each other with the best intentions, your company will thrive from the increased feedback and responses. Everyone wants to be heard. Company morale will shoot through the roof if your team knows their input is valued.
Candor is not comfortable, but it is essential.
The Best Intentions?
It is important to understand the difference between candor and destructive feedback. It is undoubtedly dependent on the person’s intentions.
Someone with good intentions will only want the best outcome but still consider the time and effort that has already been put into the task or project. Positive candor focuses on things that can be changed and helps to provide solutions to improve the process.
Someone with bad intentions will generally focus on the critical aspect of candor. Destructive feedback is quickly viewed as criticism, and that is not the road I suggest for you or your team to drive down. Saying “You’re wrong” or “He’s wrong” doesn’t help. Even if that is how you feel, there is a much more productive way of communicating that.
How to Be Constructive
Be open! Be open to communicating with others.
- Never say something behind someone’s back that you would not say to their face
- Give your honest feedback–even if your boss disagrees
- Make sure to communicate promptly
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- What is the point in talking about an editorial problem for an issue or email that went two months ago?
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Reed Hastings and Erin Meyers discuss the importance of candor in the book, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. They suggest that feedback should be given and solicited in all directions (from bottom to top, from top to bottom, peer-to-peer, and all other combinations). This allows others to hold you accountable for the feedback you receive. When participating in candor, they say to remember the 4A tool:
- Aim to assist.
- Never give feedback to unleash emotion.
- Actionable
- Appreciate feedback when given
- Respond with belonging cues–body language and words
- Accept or discard feedback you receive
Organize Your Candor
Let us talk about how to implement candor in your workplace. The easiest way to start nurturing a work environment is to start tossing it into your meetings. You are all already there, so why not have a roundtable discussion?
You can add feedback to your meeting agendas. Your team will likely open up and discuss their thoughts if it is on the agenda.
You can have live group feedback rounds. Set time aside in your meetings to allow your team to toss their ideas and opinions. Their views are essential to helping your business thrive!
You, the business owner, can post your negative feedback. Let your team know that you consider their feedback an asset to the company. And have your managers follow suit.
Time to Get Uncomfortable
The goal of implementing candor in the workplace is to nurture constructive feedback. Remember, constructive feedback pushes your team to higher performance levels and boosts morale.
While giving such feedback may not be familiar in your workplace, starting is essential. We can see drastic changes in the workforce–employees want to be heard, flexible, rewarded, and valued. So, although it may not be natural to give such open feedback within your business, allowing that cultural shift will increase your team’s performance and morale to another level.
Candor is not always comfortable, but it is necessary to ensure the best growth for your business.
To further increase your company morale, check out our blog post on quiet quitting. Learn how to be a great boss and manage quiet quitting in your workplace!
