A manager's guide to delivering effective feedback

Introduction

We put people at the heart of  everything  we do and encourage others to be people-first focused too. A huge part of this is being able to share and receive feedback.

Some of the biggest questions that often get asked include: “why is feedback important?”, “why is it so challenging to give feedback?” and “what solutions are there to help me give feedback?”. This is why we have compiled everything you need to know about feedback into three handy chapters.

Divided into three sections  (to make digesting this big topic a little easier), you’ll learn plenty of top tips and practical advice to help you on your feedback journey as a manager.  

It’s not just about the courage it takes to give feedback – but also how important delivery is and the different experiences individuals face.  

Working alongside Steve Rabson Stark from AdviceSheet and Alison King from Bespoke HR – we’ve got all bases covered, with plenty of examples, so that you can confidently give and receive feedback that will support your people, grow productivity and boost morale. 

1. Where to start: The importance of feedback

Feedback  is a tool often overlooked in businesses. Using it in an effective way can motivate teams and individuals, which will deliver the best business results.

Feedback also comes in a variety of shapes – it can be informal and verbal, like in a 1-2-1. It can also be written, for example, in a 360-feedback review or through feedback software.

There is a wealth of opportunity when it comes to this area. Let’s look at why feedback is important  for SME managers. 

Why is feedback important?

Feedback is a method for growth and development. It can help break bad habits, whilst reinforcing positive behaviour.

For your employees, feedback helps them to learn and change for the better. Whether this is time management, organisational, behavioural or something else – feedback can help to shape and guide employees’ career progression, as well as enhance performance.  

When it comes to your business, feedback can help team members perform better and encourage them to stay.

There are plenty of statistics available online to show how valuable employees find feedback, here's just a few:

This comes hand-in-hand with how employees will be more likely to stay with a business if employers listen and make changes based on their feedback.

"Feedback is key to any growing business, understanding what’s working (or sometimes what’s not) can ensure that your team can adapt and also identify training or development needs. If you choose to avoid giving difficult feedback, rest assured, you’re not alone.  

However, avoiding difficult conversations never has a positive outcome, as it can create misunderstanding or tension within a team. If you have a system in place for offering timely feedback, or are mindful of how you will deliver feedback, then it will soon become the norm and part of running a successful team."

For small businesses, delivering constructive feedback is an essential tool for managers, especially because they play such a critical role in the employee experience.

However, not enough managers provide feedback or solicit this.

But why? Sometimes feedback simply doesn’t take priority over other business tasks – yet, when your people are the ones enabling the business, they need to take priority too.  

You may even learn from an idea they have for the company, maybe they can share something game-changing…  

So what can you do about this? It’s time to find out what feedback is and what it can do for you.  

What is feedback?

Workplace feedback is a process of giving constructive suggestions of information between employees and largely ranges from positive to negative (although, hopefully always constructive).  

The goal should be to improve performance, help colleagues realise their potential, and bring about a change in the recipient’s behaviour if needed.  

Although appraisals are valuable and could be considered essential, this isn’t the only option when it comes to giving feedback – continuous feedback is on the up (think weekly 1-2-1s).

Perhaps it’s time to have a rethink – are you providing your employees with enough opportunity for personal development?

Why you need to give feedback

Manager feedback can support you and your employees to:  

• Help to set expectations - ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

• Support learning and development – allowing staff to progress in their careers through actionable feedback.

• Open communication – nipping any potential issues in the bud, increasing motivation and enhancing working relationships.  

• Build confidence – through a deeper understanding of what’s working and boosting morale.  

• Increase engagement – allowing employees to feel part of the business or brand.  

There are many reasons to give feedback, but here are our 6 top reasons you should give feedback to your employees. 

1. How can they get better if they don’t know how they’re doing?

Your team are the drivers of your business’s success or failure, so helping them realise their highest potential is critical. 

Feedback, when done right, empowers people, helps them feel safe and reduces staff turnover. Ask yourself, and your employees:

• Do they know what is expected of them? If not, how can they be confident that they’re performing tasks correctly?

• How are they doing? If people don’t know, how do they know where they need to improve or what they need to change?

• Do they know where they’re heading? Not knowing where you’re heading in your own career can be unsettling – feedback can help to define people’s paths.  

2. Opens up a dialogue and builds trust

Giving feedback opens up a dialogue between you and your employees.

Knowing that you can be honest with them and that they can talk to you helps build trust. It’s crucial – trust is the foundation for high-performing teams.  

A high-trust environment allows employees to approach you, whether that’s socially or about any issues at work, both of which impact positively on performance and culture. 

3. It can be motivating

Receiving positive feedback will always be appreciated by your employees and can motivate them to repeat this positive behaviour or strive to achieve more.

It’s also motivating to receive constructive feedback, as it lets your employees know exactly what they need to do in order to reach their target and how to improve in the future.

Highlighting solutions to problems also helps individuals on their learning 

4. It’s a tool for continued learning

Nobody is 100% right all of the time.

Giving your employees constructive feedback to let them know where and what they can improve supports their personal development, something that we know is important to them.

And if you don’t give feedback, you’re hindering the ability of people being able to do their best work.  

5. Confirms employee value

Feedback, both negative and positive, confirms to the employee that what they are doing matters.  

It’s important for people to know that their contribution is valued, not just by their direct manager but that it plays a part in the wider success of the business.

Nobody wants to spend their time doing work that isn’t worthwhile or valuable, so feedback is important, not only when people are doing well but also when there is room for improvement.  

If a colleague is invested in you enough to help you get even better, that can be tremendously validating.

6. Provides clarity

Creating a regular feedback habit plays a pivotal role in ensuring that you and your employees are on the same page when it comes to tasks, work and projects.  

For example, by providing clear and concise feedback throughout a project, everyone within the team will know it’s on track.  

If an employee needs more support or is learning a new skill, they may require training or more time in their week to work on development.  

"Remember, without feedback, you could be hindering your business and your staff development.  

Roles and responsibilities can often change and develop as your company grows. Continuous dialogue between staff and managers will allow your team to know what’s expected of them, and deliver.  

Gathering feedback from a range of people, such as team members and other managers may provide a more realistic and objective picture of an employee’s performance and make any potential personality conflicts less of an issue."

2. Why is giving feedback challenging?

Giving feedback is often a daunting task. The fear of saying the wrong thing or dealing with a difficult reaction from your colleague puts many people off.  

With the right tools and support, you can learn how to overcome this exercise. 

Why do managers need to give effective feedback?

Constructive feedback can help everyone work together better, but some behaviours and situations are difficult to give feedback on.

It comes with the nature of working with other people – which can be tricky. Do remember, sensitivity and timeliness are both relative.

When we get on well with colleagues, projects run smoothly and work can be rewarding and fun. When we don’t get on with colleagues, this can make things difficult.

Perhaps you disagree with someone’s behaviour, or maybe you don’t agree with how someone communicates. This can lead to unspoken feelings or resentment simmering beneath the surface, maybe leaving you feeling frustrated, unhappy or irritated.  If these issues aren’t addressed, then your work, leadership – and your motivation – undoubtedly suffers.

Thoughtful and timely feedback can make all the difference. By clearly and carefully communicating the current issues, individuals can take account for and process this information. 

Here’s an example: 

Someone you manage overruns on meetings with you, leading you to fall behind schedule or even be late to other meetings. This is starting to annoy you.

The next time it happens, write down what the problem is, why it impacts you and a solution to help change this.

It could be as simple as your colleague booking longer meetings with you, or perhaps setting an alarm for the meeting duration.

This feedback can help you and your colleagues work together better and achieve a positive outcome or change. This can help drive growth, collaboration, and business development.

Good feedback helps colleagues see what is going well, what can be improved, and leaves them feeling motivated to do something about it.  Good feedback can help managers improve employee engagement and motivation.

"It can feel easier to avoid difficult situations altogether, however, with practice and finding a way to feedback that works for you and the team, giving feedback does get easier.  

Most employees want to understand how they are performing and put right anything that isn’t going well. This can boost morale for everyone."

Between a rock and a hard place

Feedback doesn’t have to take a lot of time, so why can it be so hard to give?

There can be many reasons; conflict, or power dynamics or a culture where feedback isn’t normalised. Creating supportive conditions where it’s okay to deliver feedback professionally relies on a people first mentality.

When giving feedback, you may be dealing with some difficult behaviours and worried about how honest you can be without creating tension or making it worse.  

If it’s an unacceptable or limiting behaviour, the important thing is to call it out. Maybe they’re unaware of it, maybe they don’t realise the impact it’s having. Maybe they don’t realise how obvious their behaviour is to you or others. Perhaps they don’t take the time to selfreflect.

Receiving the feedback might be enough to change the behaviour on its own. At the very least, it offers an opportunity to have a conversation to get to the bottom of it.  

Here's some top tips to help you on your way:

Remember to document conversations so that you can monitor progress. This doesn’t have to be formally; it can be your own notes or an email. 

Encourage self-evaluation;  ask your team to think about their own performance on a continual basis and discuss this with them. This will make it easier for you to manage potentially difficult conversations and structure their job roles appropriately. 

Agree and set goals in conjunction with your team members which are achievable and motivational. Your staff are likely to feel more empowered if they know they contributed to their development plans. Don’t be rigid with goals, reflect and refine regularly so that they are achievable.

How can it go wrong?

Feedback can be given directly or anonymously.

Direct feedback, when it’s timely and well communicated, can be a quick way to move challenges along and achieve better working relationships.

Anonymous feedback – for example, as part of a 360-degree review, can avoid making people feel uncomfortable and the format can create an outcome, where individuals are made aware of how others perceive them. This can help them to adjust their behaviours or develop their skills in a proactive manner.  

But of course, it’s not always plain sailing. Take a look at this advice, on how giving feedback can go wrong and how you can mitigate this: 

1. Don't react - (easier said than done)

If you’re finding a person or situation difficult to manage, don’t react immediately. Take in how you feel about what has happened. Take some time to yourself to process this.

When you’re feeling ready, write down a couple of bullet points: what happened, suggested feedback and a solution. Book in some time to meet with the person. Reacting in the moment never ends well and could damage a relationship, or have even worse consequences.

2. Don't deal with it alone - talk to someone

Not sure how to move forward or how to deliver feedback? Talk to your line manager or someone you have a positive working relationship with, to get their take on things.

You don’t need to embellish situations or anything like that. Just ask them if they have some time for you and when you meet, have some examples at the ready of situations you’ve found difficult. They may have had a similar experience or heard similar things from other team members. Either way, checking in can really help to put things into perspective. 

3. Don't use feedback as the basis of someone's appraisal - because that can cause confusion in a number of areas

Good reviews are very subjective. If you need to, you might be better sticking to more quantifiable measures of success and outputs rather than how people feel about an individual.

Don’t link feedback to a bonus, it’s the numbers and outputs that count here. Salary and personal development are both important to think about during an appraisal – but as separate conversation points, so keep this in mind.

4. Focus on behaviours, not numbers

A lot of feedback software uses numbers as an assessment. That’s problematic for a couple of reasons:

It’s very easy to challenge the data. Feedback software often gives a hard score on a particular competency. But that score is heavily influenced by outlying scores. Maybe someone receives a harsh score because people don’t know them very well or questions have been misfiled because someone was in a hurry. As a manager, this could problematise something which isn’t actually an issue.

There also isn’t any context for a score. There is a risk that the individual ends up only focusing on the numbers, rather than talking about their behaviours.  

Why do managers shy away from giving feedback?

For many managers, giving feedback to colleagues or direct reports can be a challenge – feedback isn’t always easy to provide.

Why don’t managers give more feedback? There are three main reasons that spring to mind:

1. Because they’re  too busy  or it’s not a priority for them

2. Because they fall into the trap of making every meeting about the  task itself,  not about how the person is doing the task, or how they are progressing

3. Because they don’t like giving bad news, or are frightened of giving criticism and don’t know how to have a  difficult conversation

These reasons make sense, but they need to be overcome if the business is to grow in the most sustainable and positive way possible.

People aren’t often aware of how they’re perceived, so it’s important to make sure they’re able to see themselves through the lens of constructive feedback. 

How to make giving feedback easier

It’s a lot easier to give people feedback, (good and bad) if you make it a habit. And it’s a lot easier for someone to hear feedback from you, if you’re the kind of person that regularly asks for feedback from them.

Developing resilience, a thick skin even, is an important skill to master, and remembering that no feedback should be intentionally personal – it’s purely professional – will help with receiving feedback.

It can also help when it comes to development and progression.  Equally, this mindset helps when it comes to giving feedback to others that might not be the most positive.

Just remember that you can’t control how the recipient of the feedback will react, but you can control how you deliver the feedback.  

Do it in a way which makes you most comfortable – perhaps it’s better to write down your thoughts in preparation, with a slightly more informal phone call or an office chat. Remember, a vocal conversation is always best.

However you do it, remember there’s a person on the receiving end, so tailor your tone accordingly.

Letting others know that you’re interested in learning the good and the bad, will allow you to create the conditions where feedback of all kinds can be normalised.  As long as it’s handled with care and driven by good intentions.

How to make feedback more powerful

One of the challenges about feedback is that it's often only delivered one way - usually from manager to report.

If your only chance at feedback is in an annual performance review where you suddenly tell someone they’re not doing such a great job after all, despite having a whole year of not hearing it – well, that’s not fair.

If you leave the giving feedback to just once, twice or three times a year, there is the potential for a whole bunch of problems to build up for an employee.

Maybe they’re struggling with a project and don’t know how to deal with next steps, or perhaps they’re struggling with an internal work relationship… these are things you need to be aware of before it's too late.

So, start shifting your mindset to continuous feedback and making short, regular and efficient feedback meetings the norm.

Ask yourself, how frequently do your people and business need your team to receive feedback – is it daily, weekly, quarterly or by an annual appraisal? When an incident happens, address it with feedback immediately. Don’t sit on it for days or weeks – the situation will have likely been forgotten by the other person involved. This proactivity can see some of the quickest ways to improve employee performance. 

How to solve the key issues

1. Give feedback more than once a year

Annual performance appraisals are great – but they only happen once a year.

If this is the only opportunity to reflect on what could be done better and what needs to be changed at work, it’s no surprise that somewhere in between there could be some fallout between staff and managers.

Continuous feedback is what many employees prefer and can help avoid any nasty surprises.

Waiting for an arbitrary date to raise issues which haven’t been previously raised throughout the year isn’t a productive approach, especially in a small business. It can make people worry in the anticipation of the ‘big appraisal’ as a daunting task.

Things move fast, and everyone is accountable for a lot more, so it’s important that people are respectfully given an opportunity throughout the year to understand how to improve and grow. This can really help to normalise feedback too.  

2. Ask questions and listen to the ‘why’

Maybe your team members could have done better this year, but have you asked them why they think they didn’t?

For example, the ‘why’ could be because the business has been under-resourced, or because somebody was off sick. Or perhaps someone left and you didn’t replace them, so the rest of the team has been firefighting.  

If nobody pays attention to these types of incidences or tries to improve matters, this could lead to bigger problems.  

This might be the first time you’ve spoken about it. Asking the reason why certain things are happening may seem simple, but it’s often overlooked. 

3. Ask what employees need to succeed

To succeed, employees might need more feedback from you, or they might need you to do something differently.  

Maybe you think they’re doing a bad job, but your customers are delighted, the other teams they work with are delighted, and their peers think they’re doing a great job.

Are you taking all that information in? And if you’re not, how can they hear your negative feedback?

When giving negative feedback to an employee, you can quite often be met with defensive responses: “We don’t have enough resource”, “the timescales are too short” or “no one has shown me how to do this before”.  

When responding, it’s important that you are clear in what your expectations are and demonstrate the reasons why you believe the task can be completed within the current constraints, but with a positive spin.

If you don’t have plans to put any further resource onto a project, make this clear and let your employee know why. If they have the expertise to manage the process with the available team, tell them this. Communicate what you believe their strengths to be, so the employee receives the feedback and is motivated on the back of the conversation.

If you are looking into additional resourcing, recruiting or extending projects, this can also be a really good opportunity to communicate this with your employee for reassurance. 

3. Solutions to all your feedback needs

Feedback is a necessity in the world of work, which is why we want to share some of the  best solutions  to support you on your feedback journey. 

How to implement feedback culture as a manager 

It can be hard to make change happen, especially when you’re used to working a certain way. But as a manager, it’s a great opportunity to switch things up. So where better to start, than by setting the tone to encourage feedback.

Start by introducing the idea to your colleagues in a team meeting, then book in a 1-2-1 with each team member to talk about your plans.  

Set clear expectations.  

As a manager, start by making a simple feedback structure in your department or team. Start with manager to employee feedback and share: who gives feedback, who receives it, how it will be delivered, and what the goals are for giving the feedback.

This can develop as feedback becomes part of the everyday.

Make it a healthy habit. When an incident happens, feedback to whomever it concerns, must be given in a timely manner. 

If it’s a significant situation, speak to the person by the next day at the latest and address the situation, with a solution.

On the other hand, if it’s about an employee’s development, this could be included in one of your 1-2-1s with the person – do you have weekly 1-2-1s? Then make the last one of the month about their development journey.

Positive and corrective feedback. It’s all about balance. It’s really important as a manager, to give positive feedback. When a project goes well or an individual pushes themselves out of their comfort zone – positive feedback goes a long way to show how much you value that person.

Corrective feedback is great too, because it shows you care about their success. Sharing where improvements can be made or by talking about things they could stop doing to help them on certain tasks, are just as important as the positives. Get this right and you’ll have a positive team with plenty of growth potential.  

How to give feedback

Here are some examples of how to give constructive feedback on four of the hardest issues for managers – whether it be in a performance evaluation, 360 feedback review, or in conversations with colleagues. 

1. One of my direct reports doesn't respect me

This can be really disconcerting and hard to approach.

First of all, what is it that makes you feel they don’t respect you? What are they doing and how are they behaving? Be specific because that is really useful feedback.  

If they don’t know how you are feeling, they’ll continue to behave in these ways without necessarily intending to cause harm. Making them aware that the behaviour has been noticed might be enough to stop it.  

However, it may be that they are being pointedly disrespectful. Disrespectful behaviour is unacceptable and never appropriate in a workplace.  

When you give feedback, be explicit about the problematic behaviour without making a judgement about the person – using an I Statement. Making it about them, rather than the behaviour, could trigger a defensive reaction. A conversation is always the best way to broach the issue. 

Try this: 

"When you give feedback, be explicit about the problematic behaviour without making a judgement about the person – using an I Statement. Making it about them, rather than the behaviour, could trigger a defensive reaction. A conversation is always the best way to broach the issue."

2. You think the feedback will be seen as negative

Don’t let the negative be the focus – for anyone. Sometimes, we have to deal with difficult encounters. Especially when it comes to managing people. Although there will be times where it feels you have to deliver negative feedback, it isn’t all doom and gloom. 

Maybe someone has fallen short on a project or perhaps they’ve missed a deadline. Take a step back and walk through the facts. What has happened, why does it need to be addressed and more importantly – where do you go from here?  

This part is key. State the facts and then discuss what can be done to avoid the situation again. Bring solutions to the table and then you and your colleague can talk about ways to make improvements. 

This also brings the opportunity to talk about something else that could be going on that you don’t know about. Do they feel overwhelmed with workload at the moment? Is there something going on in their personal life?  

Solutions are key. Talking is powerful.

Try this:

“On the recent project X you’ve been working on, we’ve now had the results in and they are below Y. As we’ve missed the target, let’s talk about Z and make a change and find a solution that works for both of us. 

Is there anything else going on at the moment you’d like to talk about? Please feel free to have an open conversation with me, so that I can support you in the right way moving forward.”

3. Clarity gets lost. Be specific.

When you feel nervous or worried, it’s natural to stumble on your words or struggle to talk about the matter in hand. If you feel like this when giving feedback, think how it will feel for the person receiving it.

That’s why it’s important to know what it is you’re trying to achieve from a feedback session.  

Preparation is vital. Write down what it is you need to discuss: what has happened, what the solution is and what to do next. If you have something to refer to, this will steer the direction for the meeting and give you more confidence when you’re talking.

Relieve the pressure – bring a cup of tea to the meeting and try to make it conversational where possible (unless it’s a serious incident of course).  

Ask for their input. You don’t need to do all the talking, your colleague might have great ideas and solutions to improve ways of working, so keep your ears open.  

The more you make giving feedback a habit, the less distressed you’ll feel when it comes to delivering feedback.  

Try this:

“So we’re here to talk about X. I’ve been thinking that it will be beneficial to start doing Y. This means next time, we’ll be able to see Z. Let’s have a conversation about this to move forward positively. What are your thoughts?” 

4. You're worried the receiver will get upset

Remember, it’s not personal.  

Everyone is different and every day is different too. Some people are naturally more sensitive than others and some are more defensive than others. Some days are good and some days are bad. Always keep this in mind when it comes to giving feedback.

If you worry about upsetting someone, you’ll find it hard when it comes to managing a team or running a business, or even find things hard in your personal life.

As long as you keep it professional, stick with the facts and provide a solution to support the individual, this is what counts. And remember, this is all possible by being friendly too – you don’t need to put on a front.  

Feedback isn’t about attacking a person or making them feel bad – it’s about how to stop something that isn’t working and talking about other ways the work can be done.  

It’s easy to make someone feel valuable when you give feedback, as you’re helping them with their career development and progression, so talk about this too.  

Try this:

“Let’s run through X today. I’ve got Y ideas that could support with your project. This could help your development journey to Z.”  

Let's talk about 360 feedback

What is 360 feedback and how do you use it? 

There are many advantages of using 360 feedback for development. Managers may prioritise uncovering their employees’ weaknesses rather than putting an emphasis on positive and constructive feedback, so having a chance to discuss everything is useful. 

It’s also an important part of gauging your organisation’s culture, with clear advantages. Here, we’ve outlined the opportunities and areas for consideration when conducting 360 reviews.

Advantages of 360 feedback for organisations

• It provides qualitative and quantitative data that will help employees develop and improve.

• It  reinforces the link between competencies, behaviours and values that are required for the job role.

• Employees can discover a sound understanding of their strengths and weaknesses which in turn gives them a basis for development.

• It promotes the company’s commitment to employee development which is a great recruitment and retention tool.

• It provides a fair and transparent process that encourages an open culture that values feedback.

Dangers of 360 feedback for organisations

• The questions have to be well thought out and well executed which means spending some time putting the process together.

• You need to think about qualitative versus quantitative data.

• If the feedback is not clear and well communicated you can risk causing tension amongst your employees.

• Those providing feedback might not feel comfortable to do so and feel pressured or stressed by the process. That’s why it should be anonymous and confidential, and also why it should be up to the individual for who else gets to read it.

Advantages of 360 feedback for managers and employees

• Feedback is received from a number of sources within the workplace.

• Gives them the opportunity to discover the opinions of people they work with and see how that compares to their own thoughts.

• Reading or hearing things about yourself helps you grow and improve. How can you get better if you don’t know? Once an individual is aware, then they can own the improvement needed, and get better.

• Can improve teamwork through an increased understanding of how others perceive them.

• Puts a focus on personal development and what they do well, as well as what can be improved.

• Increases self-awareness.

Areas for consideration for managers and employees

• Lack of action following the feedback being given. It’s important to continue the process by acting on it, and that colleagues can see a link between what they fed back and someone’s desire to change. If people don’t see change from the subject, they may lose faith in the process.

• Feedback may not be well communicated and cause upset or distress to the employee.

Solutions: other models and structures

There are plenty of different models you can follow, 360 feedback is one of many options out there.  Check out some more solutions below, to help you decide the best feedback technique for you. 

EEC model - Example, Effect, Change/Continue

1. Start by sharing an example – this could be a good or bad behaviour or action

2. Then, talk about the effects this has. What impact is it having on other individuals, the team and even the company?

3. Now it’s time to talk about ‘what next?’. If it’s negative feedback, share the change/s needed to make improvements and progress. If it’s good feedback, share why it’s important to continue and how this will help development.

STAR model – no surprise here, it’s influenced by a star (try printing out the shape to help in your day-to-day)

S: Stands for situation: address the situation and what has happened

T: Stands for task: what was the task, you can add detail here

A: Stands for action: talk about solutions, e.g. what can an employee do differently to stop a mistake from happening again

R: Stands for results: discuss what result/s you expect from making changes, the action should drive a direct result/s

The Pendleton method  – sharing performance feedback and proactive problem-solving  

1. It’s time to reflect, ask your employee what they think has gone well

2. Now ask them what they think could be better

3. Your turn, as a manager, let them know if you agree or disagree with the points they’ve made

4. Now talk about any differences you see – maybe they did a great job on a project they’ve forgotten about, or maybe they missed the mark on another task

5. It’s time to work together (two brains are better than one after all). Discuss the ‘what went well’, the ‘could do differently’ in further detail. Then you can run through how to further improve and talk about how the employee can get there – what’s the end goal?

Here’s a top tip:

Whatever method you choose to use, remember to communicate it to your team. Let them know if they need to prepare for the meeting or reflect on their performance, everyone will get more out of the conversation if the team know the format of the meeting.