A simple way to feedback in 5 minutes

Why do we avoid telling the truth?

At Poznań Progress Partners, we noticed that 7 out of 10 small business owners feel physical discomfort before pointing something out to an employee. You're afraid that Marek from logistics will get offended, and Agnieszka from accounting will start looking for another job. This makes you turn a blind eye to minor delays or errors in invoices. The problem is that these trifles add up to huge losses. In one of the companies in Jeżyce that we worked with in March 2024, the lack of clear feedback cost the owner nearly 4,200 PLN per month in overtime alone.

We often think that feedback is an evaluation of a person, but that's a mistake. Without beating around the bush: if you don't tell people what they are doing wrong, you're not helping them. They think everything is fine, and you get more and more frustrated. Then comes the moment when you explode over a trifle and then you actually ruin the atmosphere. People are not Excel spreadsheets, they have their emotions, but they need clear boundaries to feel safe at work. Clear communication is the foundation on which we build the culture at Poznań Progress Partners.

Instead of waiting for an annual employee appraisal, which doesn't work in a small team anyway, start reacting on an ongoing basis. A conversation lasting 320 seconds can save your evening and your relationship with the employee. The key is to change the approach from 'I have to lecture him' to 'I have to explain to him how this affects the company'. This short shift in your head changes everything. We're not looking for someone to blame, we're looking for solutions that will allow us all to leave the office at 4:00 PM instead of 6:30 PM.

Feedback is not an attack on a person, but a conversation about a specific job to be done.

The facts-effect model: How to handle it?

Forget about complicated methods from corporate textbooks. Straight talk for the board: you only need two things – facts and effects. Facts are something that monitoring in your office on Półwiejska could record. Don't say 'you're late again' because that's an evaluation. Say 'this week on Tuesday and Thursday you came at 8:14, and we agreed on 8:00'. It's hard to argue with facts. They cut off unnecessary discussions and attempts to evade responsibility.

The second step is the effect. You must show the employee what happened because of their behavior. If the mentioned employee was 14 minutes late, the effect is not your anger. The effect is that a client from Luboń had to wait outside the closed gate, and we lost the chance for an additional order. When people see the real impact of their actions on the rest of the team or on the company's finances, they start thinking differently. We check facts, not promises – that's our rule when implementing this model in every Poznań team.

Using this method, you avoid words like 'always', 'never' or 'you're irresponsible'. These phrases are an invitation to a quarrel. By focusing on hard data, you maintain the authority of the boss and at the same time don't become a tyrant. We saw how in an 8-person team, the introduction of this simple rule shortened morning operational meetings by 11 minutes every day. That's almost an hour a week regained for real work, and not for idle discussions about who is right.

It's hard to argue with facts. They cut off unnecessary discussions and attempts to evade responsibility.

Examples from the life of Poznań offices

Let's take a situation from a commercial company where the team has 11 people. An employee sent an offer to a client with errors in prices. The boss, instead of shouting, used our method. 'Marcin, in the offer for the company near Swarzędz, you entered a rate of 120 PLN instead of 150 PLN. Because of this, our profit on this order will fall by 22%, and I will have to personally call and explain the mistake'. Marcin didn't feel attacked, he felt responsible. Next time he checked the table three times before sending.

Another example is a design office in Wilda. One of the designers notoriously doesn't reply to emails from clients within the promised 4-hour period. Instead of saying 'you're lazy', the boss said: 'Yesterday you didn't reply to the inquiry from Mr. Krzysztof for 7 hours. The effect is that Mr. Krzysztof called me with complaints, and I had to interrupt a meeting with a new investor'. This is concrete. Such an approach makes the employee understand the chain of dependencies in the company. Without beating around the bush – this is the only way to the boss's peace of mind.

Implementing this standard at Poznań Progress Partners usually takes about 3 meetings with the management staff. We don't do big lectures. We simply take real problems from your office and turn them into concrete sentences. Thanks to this, the next morning you know exactly what to say when you see that the job is not going as it should. In 2023, we helped 43 bosses regain control over their calendars this way.

How not to ruin the conversation at the start?

The biggest mistake is the so-called 'sandwich method', which is wrapping a bad message in two good ones. It doesn't work because the employee is only waiting for that 'but', and what you said nicely at the beginning is treated as insincere. At Poznań Progress Partners, we teach to be direct. If you have a comment, say it immediately. This is an honest way of putting matters. Your people will appreciate that you don't play games with them, but treat them like adult partners in business.

The place and time are also important. Never give feedback in front of the entire team in the kitchen or on an open space. This is humiliating. Invite the person aside, even for 5 minutes to a conference room or for a quick coffee. Privacy allows the employee to accept the comment without the need to 'defend face' in front of colleagues. One of our clients, running a car workshop, started doing this in his office instead of on the hall and noticed that the mechanics stopped reacting with aggression to his comments regarding the cleanliness of the workstations.

Also remember to close the conversation. Ask: 'How can we avoid this next week?'. Don't leave the employee with only the problem. Give them a chance to propose a solution. This builds commitment. If they say themselves that from now on they will set a reminder on their phone, you have an 84% better chance that they will actually do it than if you ordered them to. Bossing is not about conducting, it's about organizing relationships so that everyone knows what they are getting paid for.

Your people will appreciate that you don't play games with them, but treat them like adult partners.

Your first 5 minutes with feedback

Want to start? Choose one situation that happened in the last 24 hours. Don't bring up matters from a month ago, because no one remembers them anymore. Write down on a piece of paper: what exactly happened (fact) and what it caused (effect). Then go to the employee and say: 'Listen, I have a short matter, it will take us 3 minutes'. Stick to your notes. You will see that after the third such conversation, the stress almost completely disappears, and you will feel relief that the matter has been clarified.

If you feel that your team is exceptionally difficult, we can check it together. At Poznań Progress Partners, we do not offer theoretical lectures. We arrive, listen to how you talk, and show where time and money are escaping. It often turns out that it's enough to change 4 habits in communication for efficiency to jump by nearly 23%. These are not magic tricks, it's pure business pragmatics that we have been using for 9 years in companies from Greater Poland.

We invite you to contact us if you're tired of being 'the hardest-working employee in your company'. We can arrange a 20-minute phone call to assess whether our methods fit your management style. We don't promise miracles, but we promise a concrete action plan that you will implement in 4 weeks. Your office on Półwiejska can be a place where everyone knows what to do, and you finally eat dinner with your family without glancing at your phone.