Give Me That Feedback

Providing feedback as a leader is extremely important. It allows for the leader to help his or her team to demonstrate growth and gives the people a chance to reflect on his or her skills and make changes if necessary.

In my role as a mentor, I would observe my teachers' instruction and afterward, we would set up a meeting. During that meeting, I would ask them what they felt were the glows and grows about their instruction. After sharing, I would discuss what I observed, in regard to their glows and grows. Next, I would share with them my observations and asked what could they do differently or what do they feel their nexts instructional steps should be. I would explain that I would follow up with them and check in to see how they are making progress with the next instructional steps we came up with together. This allows the team member to grow, professionally, because they are able to reflect on their actions or skills and make either minor or major tweaks. The leader learns about their team and team learns both about themselves and their leader.

Before observing my mentees, at our initial meeting I would explain that there may be times that I may need to provide feedback during instruction. I would ask if that was something they would be willing to allow. In my experience, I never had a teacher say no. It is important that a leader makes the teacher feel comfortable as well. I think that building relationships with the team members is a great start to making teachers feel comfortable.

Leaders providing feedback helps to build relationships with their members. They can use the opportunity to learn more about their team. During the providing feedback process, a leader can learn about their. team member's personal and professional goals and aspirations. Some of the feedback that a leader may provide can align with those goals and aspirations. In my experience, my leaders and I discussed my professional goals and the feedback that was given to me was to help me grow and also aligned with my goals. For example, I aspire to be an assistant principal at a middle school. The feedback that my leader would give would align with that. Sometimes they would mention what I need to know or do as a leader to help prepare me. I learned how to communicate with my leaders and be comfortable.

Providing feedback to employees should be specific and aligns to the goals of the team and the person. It allows for opportunities to grow from reflection and formulate strong relationships between leader and employee. Leaders must pour into their teams to help ensure success.