An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Giving consistent feedback so you don’t end up giving disruptive or unannounced feedback to employees.
As a part of our series about “How To Give Honest Feedback without Being Hurtful”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jen Patterson.
Jen Patterson is an experienced HR leader and business consultant in the Human Resources industry for 20+ years. From talent development to executive leadership, Jen has experience creating workplace cultures centered on putting people first, working with clients to identify gaps in their HR programs, and creating talent and succession planning and retention strategies.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I started Patterson Consulting Group in 2021 to help companies learn how to engage their employees through creating cultures where people want to come to work and know their company understands their value. Our team works with companies with HR strategies, programs, and plans to help companies enhance their HR team and humanize their workplace.
Before starting Patterson Consulting Group, I worked at a large book wholesaler for six years and held a dual title of CHRO and CXO and oversaw more than 250 people, and was directly responsible for HR, Sales, Marketing, and Products. I’ve also worked for Gap, Inc., and Limited, Inc., where I was a district trainer that coached leadership on employee engagement, created labor management strategies and assisted with managing low-performing stores.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
PCG is all about putting people first! We help leaders drive business through people by supporting them with the resources they need to succeed. We’re excited to be able to offer our clients the best possible service and help them achieve their goals. We implemented an employee engagement program with a large client. The program was successful in increasing retention by 25%. We’re excited about the program’s positive results and the difference it’s made for their employees and the bottom line.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
When I was coaching a new leader early in my career, it became clear that they were not invested in their role. Sadly, I had to let them go because of poor performance and lack of activity on the job. However, let’s fast-forward to meeting up again 5+years later! The individual reached out to me with thanks for being honest about expectations from day one, as well as accountability. That moment of responsibility and honesty propelled them to make some changes personally and professionally. They are now thriving in her career and credit that uncomfortable moment as why they grew as a leader.
What advice would you give to other CEOs and business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?
In today’s fast-paced, high-stress workplace environment, it’s more important than ever for leaders to create cultures where employees feel seen and heard. There’s nothing more powerful than a human being who believes they matter, so facilitating conversations with employees and giving them a safe space and a voice can go a long way in increasing engagement and motivation.
When you help employees feel like they belong, you create a chain reaction of positive change that can impact every aspect of their lives. This can tremendously impact an organization’s bottom line; when employees believe they matter, they are more likely to go the extra mile for their company.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is about so much more than just giving orders or being in charge. It’s about inspiring and motivating your team to reach their full potential. It’s about supporting and guiding them through challenges. If you want to be a truly great leader, you need to be passionate about helping others reach their highest level of success.
In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?
When preparing for a presentation or meeting, I like to ask myself these questions. Will this make any difference? What is the end result of my presentation, and how can it help us achieve our goals as an organization?” It helps me stay focused on what’s important and ensures everything doesn’t get lost in translation.
Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Can you briefly tell our readers about your experience with managing a team and giving feedback?
For a business to be successful, it is essential that the employees are performing at their best. I believe this can be accomplished through consistent feedback. Regular feedback allows them to learn from their mistakes and improve their performance.
In my experience, having a system in place for consistent feedback is crucial. It is important to follow it consistently so employees can benefit from it and relationships have time to be built! Regular meetings between employees and their managers to give and receive feedback create regular communication and relationship-building time between them. That way, when you have to give challenging feedback, you do so without being hurtful.
This might seem intuitive but it will be constructive to spell it out. Can you share with us a few reasons why giving honest and direct feedback is essential to being an effective leader?
Feedback is crucial for the workplace as it manages expectations and allows employees to learn from their mistakes and become better at their jobs.
A successful manager understands how to give constructive feedback and help employees grow professionally and personally. Providing regular feedback helps managers get a better understanding of how their employees are performing. It can help improve communication between employees and managers. When done correctly, feedback can be a powerful tool that helps businesses run more smoothly!
One of the trickiest parts of managing a team is giving honest feedback, in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. Can you please share with us five suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote employee? Kindly share a story or example for each.
Constructive feedback allows employees to learn from mistakes or missteps and improve their performance. My suggestions for giving feedback to remote employees would include:
- Giving consistent feedback so you don’t end up giving disruptive or unannounced feedback to employees.
- Getting on video calls for your regularly scheduled meetings so you can read non-verbal cues like facial expressions, gestures, etc. These cues are especially important when creating a rapport with an employee.
- Ensuring your constructive feedback is delivered with honesty, clarity, and sensitivity so employees don’t misunderstand the feedback.
- Giving actionable advice, direction, resources, etc., emphasizing the positive results and outcomes.
- Encouraging communication between you and the employee so they can share feedback and ask questions.
Can you address how to give constructive feedback over email? If someone is in front of you much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote.
How do you prevent the email from sounding too critical or harsh?
Communication is key, whether in person, online, or via email. Email is fickle because people can add emotion and tone to words or the lack of words in your email. If you’re giving constructive feedback, my suggestions would include:
- Starting by saying thank you, being friendly, or appreciating them for something they have recently done before giving feedback.
- Being honest and straightforward in your email wording yet kind and empathetic. Avoid elaborating on what went wrong but provide specific and actionable direction on what is needed from them.
- Asking questions and their thoughts and ask if you can clarify anything for them.
In your experience, is there a best time to give feedback or critique? Should it be immediately after an incident? Should it be at a different time? Should it be at set intervals? Can you explain what you mean?
Depending on the incident, feedback might be necessary immediately or a manager might have to talk with other leaders and departments before giving feedback. Each employee is unique and the most successful managers are those who have a strong emotional intelligence. They are able to put themselves in other people’s shoes, understand their feelings, and respond in a way that builds trust. A manager with high emotional intelligence will know when and how to give feedback to an employee.
It is important to have a system in place for employees to receive consistent feedback. This could involve setting up regular meetings between employees and their managers or having a designated time each week for employees to receive feedback. Whatever system you choose, it is important to follow it consistently so your employees can benefit from it!
How would you define what it is to “be a great boss”? Can you share a story?
Being a great boss means being a great leader, listening to your team, and helping them succeed. A great boss knows the difference between winning on their own or with help from others; it’s all about leading with empathy and clear communication so that people feel trust in you, as evidenced by how much success they achieved while working for this type of person!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could inspire a movement, it would be one that encourages empathy in both our professional and personal lives. I believe that leading with empathy can create a more compassionate world where everyone is respected and valued.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my favorite quotes from Simon Sinek is, “Managers work to see numbers grow. Leaders work to see people grow”. I love this quote because it embodies an important life lesson that I have learned through my experience leading people. This perspective has been incredibly helpful to me in my journey as a leader, and I am excited to share it with others.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Feel free to visit our website and social channels, read our blog, and reach out to us online if you have any questions.
Thank you for these great insights! We really appreciate the time you spent with this.
Jen Patterson Of Patterson Consulting Group On How To Give Honest Feedback without Being Hurtful was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
