Team vs. Individual Feedback

As with the discussion around metrics, keep in mind that some feedback should be generalized to the team, and some should be generalized to the individual. Usually this will go hand-in-hand with the metrics being gathered and examined, but it is often the case that a manager will want to praise a team for the work they’ve done while privately speaking with individuals to provide coaching and guidance.

When providing the team with feedback, think carefully about whether to call out individuals within that context—while it’s certainly appropriate to celebrate an individual’s accomplishments, team members will notice if the praise is overtly centered around just one or two members. While you certainly don’t need to “keep score” to ensure that each team member is given an equal amount of time in the praise spotlight, you also want to make sure you are staying in touch with each member of the team to have opportunities to call their wins out in a semi-public (that is, team-wide) setting.