It it easier or harder today to give employees feedback?

Friends,

In the world of work today, is it getting easier or difficult to give feedback?
It would appear that it should actually get easier to give feedback, is not it?

Why so?

Our vocabulary about behaviors seems to be much higher today than it ever was.
The availability of assessment data is significantly superior than it ever was.

We are bombarded with so much of popular psychology literature on a daily basis about traits, habits, behaviours and so on.

Organizations have invested so much in detailing behaviors, competencies, values, guiding principles and so on

All of us seem to be pretty good at going out and posting criticism on everything in the world, whether it matters to us or not

Therefore, all this put together, it would appear that it should be easy to give employees feedback and easier for them to accept it?

But, there are several challenges.

The most fundamental of these challenges I think there is a certain level of identity confusion among employees – at any moment in time, are they customers or are they employees? This whole celebration about engagement and employee care and well -being may often be leading to a certain confusion between rights and responsibilities. When you criticize, does the employee feel aggrieved as a customer or reflect deeply, as an employee?

As a society, we live in a place where everyone is extremely touchy and sensitive. It is also unsafe to say anything , without fear of some form of backlash.

Managers and leaders are ever petrified about demotivating an employee or fearful that the employee will stop doing even whatever that person is doing or even leave.

And at a more fundamental level is the fact that managers have a very fragile relationship with their employees and do not have the ability to really be themselves and be candid because of this fragility in the relationship. Managers are not sure how it will land and how they can manage it. Managers seldom earn the right to give feedback.

Therefore for all the cognitive advancements, there is emotional backwardness, if I should say so.

The crux of being able to give feedback rests on the emotional intelligence, the humanistic orientation, the authenticity and the skillfulness of the conversation.

Yes, feedback is harder to give and harder to receive!