7 tips for delivering performance feedback.

Giving employees honest feedback on their performance can be one of the toughest jobs a manager can do. Leaders often shy away from delivering the honest feedback their employees need because it is uncomfortable and can seem over-whelming to deal with. Yet without good feedback, your operation cannot improve productivity, and your employees cannot grow and learn.

Before you walk into your next performance review, here are seven tips to help take the "sting" out of giving feedback.

1. Create the right setting.

All performance feedback should be conducted in a private, one-on-one setting, behind a closed door, without interruptions. Never give feedback to an employee in a setting where other employees may overhear you, such as in the break room or the hallway. Feedback on the employee's performance should be private between you and the employee whom it concerns. This is a simple rule, but many leaders underestimate the value of privacy in dealing with their employees, and risk damaging the trust of the employee-manager relationship.

Interruptions can be as threatening as a lack of privacy to an employee in a one-on-one feedback session. If you do not give your employee your complete and undivided attention, you are sending a clear signal to him or her the conversation is not all that important to you. Turn off your phone, and put up a sign outside the door instructing people not to interrupt.

2. Utilize self-feedback.

One of the most effective -- and oft-neglected -- tools of feedback is self-feedback. This is when the employee is given a chance to comment on his or her own behavior and productivity. This technique is highly effective for a number of reasons: employees are likely to be tougher on themselves than you are on them, and they will also work harder to improve in areas they disclose personally.

The best way for supervisors to incorporate self-feedback is to create a two-way conversation centered on each of the performance topics. In this situation, a supervisor will ask the employee for her opinion, then the supervisor will give his own opinion.

Supervisors should always give their opinions last, to avoid influencing the comments of the employee.

For example, if the topic of conversation is production units, and the required metric is 300 units/day, the supervisor might ask the employee, "How well do you feel you are meeting your daily performance metrics?" The employee then has the opportunity to evaluate herself, as well as to identify any problem areas up front. The supervisor may then agree with the employee's interpretation of her success, or point out times where the employee is not meeting the daily expectation of 300 units/day.