Feedback Loops: The Secrets to Improving Manager Effectiveness

Imagine if you never received feedback on your work. Despite your best efforts, you have no idea if you’re contributing to any broader goals or creating a positive outcome for anyone. How long could you continue to work in such an environment?

Every leader understands the value of feedback, but too many organizations artificially restrict its delivery to annual performance reviews and similar rigid structures. This might lead to simpler reporting, but it can overwhelm employees with too little feedback. It’s more difficult for these employees to improve in the long term.

That’s where feedback loops come in. A feedback loop is a continuous process in which employees are regularly given feedback they can apply over time, improving their performance and behavior. This gives employees more guidance while keeping communication channels between them and their managers open.

But feedback loops aren’t just for employees. They’re an essential tool for making every manager a better leader.

Key takeaways

1. Understanding the concept of a feedback loop.
2. How employee feedback benefits the entire organization.
3. Why feedback loops are essential to make managers more effective.
4. Common employee feedback questions for managers.
5. How to implement and use feedback loops in performance management.

What is a feedback loop?

The term “feedback loop” describes a phenomenon in multiple fields, including performance management. It involves three main elements:

• Input: The factors and information added into a system before it performs the desired action.
• System: The structure that performs an action.
• Output: The results of the system’s action (i.e., the feedback) fed into the system as new input.

Feedback loops involve cyclical action, in which a system’s output continuously affects how it takes action. Some feedback loops are designed to consistently improve the way a system acts, while others are used to maintain equilibrium. 

A car’s cruise control is an example of a feedback loop. With cruise control active, if a car goes down a hill and picks up speed, that information will be used to trigger the right action (applying the brakes). The initial input is the speed selected, the system is the car’s throttle and brakes, while the output is the car’s actual speed. As its actual speed changes, that information is used as input to create a new action.

In performance management, feedback loops describe how one person gives regular, constructive feedback on another person’s performance or behavior, which is used to improve it over time.

In the typical context of a feedback loop, feedback simply defines the output of a certain action when fed back into a system’s input. But for performance management, feedback should be defined as information that is respectful and constructive, used to reinforce strengths and highlight areas where improvement is possible. “You dropped the ball on that last project” isn’t feedback. “Your project management skills were a bit lacking, and trying a different methodology might help you improve” is.

An employee feedback loop allows employees to regularly share constructive feedback with their managers, making them more effective leaders while giving them more visibility on their team’s work.

What are the organizational benefits of employee feedback?

An employee feedback loop has significant benefits for employees, managers, and the organization at large.

Improved manager effectiveness

Managers need guidance the same way employees do. While executives and department heads can help managers develop their leadership skills, a lack of visibility on their team’s work can make giving pertinent feedback difficult.

Employees have a first-row seat to the results of a manager’s performance. They’re best-placed to give feedback that’s both correct and constructive, helping managers find areas for improvement.

Enhanced performance and productivity

An employee feedback loop doesn’t just make managers more effective; it can impact the entire team. When employees are given more ownership over the team’s performance, they have more of a stake in seeing it improve. That might encourage them to give feedback on processes, tools, and other aspects of the team not exclusively tied to the manager’s own performance.

Employee satisfaction and retention

According to research from the Pew Center, more than half of employees leave their jobs because they feel disrespected. One of the best ways to make them feel disrespected? A manager who doesn’t listen to anything they have to say.

When employees feel like their words matter and their feedback can impact how their team is run (and their manager’s performance), they feel like their employer respects them. That can make them more satisfied with their day-to-day work, which is essential for retaining your top talent.

Cultural benefits

Many organizations understand that employees value transparency, trust, and mutual growth, so they make these elements part of their company culture. An employee feedback loop contributes to strengthening these values. Here’s how:

• Transparency: For employees to give genuine feedback, they need to know their manager’s priorities, how they work, and how they contribute to the overall organization. Additionally, managers who share their own performance metrics and improvements create more transparency within their team.
• Trust: By prioritizing employee feedback, organizations and managers show their trust in the perspectives, opinions, and priorities of employees. This is especially true when that feedback is actually put into practice.
• Mutual growth: Organizations that apply similar feedback loops to managers as individual contributors show that employees aren’t the only ones who need to grow. 

Why are employee feedback loops important?

Beyond the broader organizational benefits, employee feedback loops make a massive difference at the team level.

Addressing performance gaps

Why do some teams perform better than others? While it can often seem immutable, that disparity can easily be solved with something as simple as a feedback loop.

Employee feedback loops might not identify or solve every problem, but they naturally encourage multiple perspectives. That means you won’t just have more opportunities to identify performance gaps, but you’ll get more solutions for resolving them, steadily improving performance across teams.

Driving continuous improvement

Quarterly performance reviews and similar feedback mechanisms have one big problem. They’re too infrequent to create lasting improvement. You may see some short-term effects, especially if a promotion is on the line, but that’s about it.

An employee feedback loop is built around frequently checking in on performance and making necessary improvements along the way. Continuous improvement means every manager in your organization is steadily building their skills, even by just a little bit, every day.

Building trust between managers and employees

Employees aren’t the only ones who need to build trust. Leaders who earn their team’s trust can get more out of them without cracking the whip. Employee feedback loops help build that trust by showing managers are worthy of trust and that they trust their employees. When a manager takes an employee’s feedback and puts it into practice, they show that employee that their opinion matters. It’s far easier to trust a manager who cares about your opinion than one who doesn’t.

Adaptability in leadership

It can be tough for leaders and managers to adapt to change. Their priorities and approach to leadership might not match real needs, making adaptation necessary. An employee feedback loop—like any feedback loop—gives the input needed for managers to make the right changes to their leadership style.

How does employee feedback impact manager effectiveness?

Managers who regularly take feedback from their teams are generally more effective than those who don’t. Here’s how.

Promoting self-reflection and growth

Self-reflection is an important quality for growth. Managers, so focused on consistently delivering and helping their team achieve more, may not always make that self-reflection a priority. This can significantly stifle their growth. With a regular employee feedback loop, managers get frequent opportunities to re-evaluate their performance and find paths for growth.

Identifying strengths and weaknesses

When managers reach a certain level in the org chart, there isn’t as much oversight on their strengths and weaknesses as a contributor. Leaders may offer feedback from time to time, but there’s rarely a structured channel for doing this regularly. Employees have the most visibility on their manager’s performance, and they’re the best placed to help that manager know what they’re best at and where they struggle.

Improving decision-making

The more data you have, the better your decisions. Unfortunately, for far too many of their decisions, managers have precious little data. Employee feedback can fix this. Not only can employees help managers take a different perspective on an important decision, but their feedback is essentially instant data about the validity of a decision.

With a habit of regularly checking in with employees for decisions and their overall performance, managers get a better sense of which decisions make a real difference.

Creating an open feedback culture

If nurturing open feedback at every level is important for your organization, you need to show it in your actions. Opening managers up to receiving feedback from their team shows that feedback can truly flow upwards. That can encourage employees to be more open when asked for feedback by leadership, department heads, and others throughout the organization.

Boosting emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is to soft skills what IQ is to academic knowledge and problem-solving. A huge part of emotional intelligence is being able to receive criticism without getting emotional. Employees regularly practice their emotional intelligence skills by receiving feedback from their managers and other sources, but most managers rarely get the same chance.

An employee feedback loop allows managers to work on their emotional intelligence and get direct feedback on whether their emotional intelligence skills are lacking.

Common employee feedback questions for managers

You’re convinced an employee feedback loop can make your managers more effective while stimulating their growth. But you’re not sure where to start.

Let’s cover some common questions you can start asking.

Feedback questions that employees can ask managers

First, here are some questions employees can ask to get feedback from their managers:

1. “What can I do to support you more effectively?”
2. “How can I improve our communication?”
3. “Do you feel that I am providing enough clarity and guidance on expectations?”
4. “Are there any areas where I can improve?”
5. “Is there something I should start, stop, or continue doing to be more effective?”

Feedback questions that managers can ask employees

Here are some questions managers can ask when they’re looking for feedback from their team:

1. “What could I do to make your work experience better?”
2. “How can I help you achieve your personal and professional goals?”
3. “Do you feel you’re receiving enough feedback to improve your performance?”
4. “Are there any obstacles I can help remove to improve your productivity?”
5. “Is there something I should change in my management style to better support you?”

How to use these questions in feedback loops

To get the most out of these questions, remember a few things:

• Make it constructive: The goal of a feedback loop is to provide something the recipient can use to improve, not just to air your grievances.
• Highlight improvements: No one likes constantly hearing that they’re performing below expectations, especially after putting effort into improving. Highlight what people are doing well before you criticize them.
• Focus on outcomes: The purpose of a feedback loop is to use data to lead to a better outcome. Feedback should always be aimed at improving the end goal of whatever a manager is working on.
• Consider performance management platforms: Having informal conversations and a paper trail might work for some organizations, but clear performance metrics and automated reminders to share feedback make all these processes more efficient. That’s why a performance management platform like 15Five can help everyone make more of their feedback loops.

Get more from your feedback

Feedback loops are essential for making your managers more effective. They create more trust within teams, create a culture of transparency and accountability for the entire organization, and improve performance throughout the team—not just for managers. Employee feedback allows managers to refine the way they lead, make better decisions, and guarantee better outcomes for their team.

Technology can only make your feedback loops stronger. Consider deploying 15Five’s Perform to streamline the feedback process and track every manager’s growth. 

Want to learn more? Check out this guide and find out how feedback loops help increase employee retention.