Two people quit after feedback calls, so I changed how my managers do them.
I had two people leave after really bad feedback conversations. Both were remote, and both got labeled “too sensitive” afterward.
I listened back to the calls and, yeah, I could see why they went badly. One person got blindsided with serious performance concerns during a normal 1:1. The other got a bunch of criticism with almost no concrete examples.
Since then I’ve told my managers to give people a heads up when the conversation is going to be serious, bring actual examples, and tell them what needs to change. Nothing revolutionary, but the conversations got a lot less tense.
One thing that surprised me was how differently people react to the same delivery. We had a session where some of the team talked through their working styles, and I used the coached career test as part of that because I wanted managers to think more about how different people take in feedback. It helped make the point that “I said it clearly” doesn’t always mean the other person actually heard it the way you intended.
The biggest change was after the call. Managers now send a short recap of what was discussed and what happens next. No giant email, just enough that nobody has to sit there wondering what the hell that conversation actually meant.
Remote feedback can get weird because there’s no hallway conversation afterward. Someone can close their laptop after a rough call and sit with it for the rest of the day.
I wish I’d changed this stuff before those two people left.