Why Managers Avoid Feedback (and How HR Can Change the Game)

Continuous Performance Management Saves the Day

If you’re an HR professional, chances are you've been here: A manager approaches you with an employee performance issue, only to reveal they’ve never actually spoken to the individual about it. The frustration is real—and common. But why does this feedback gap persist despite our best efforts to remind managers to "give feedback early and often"? Let’s look closer at why well-intentioned feedback advice so often goes unheeded and what HR can do to help break this cycle.

The Ideal World vs. The Real World of Feedback

In a perfect world, feedback flows regularly. Managers and employees engage in ongoing conversations; annual reviews summarize a year’s worth of meaningful exchanges. Yet, feedback tends to be delayed, avoided, or omitted entirely. It’s not that managers don’t recognize the importance of feedback—they do. However, multiple obstacles get in the way, creating a pervasive culture of feedback avoidance that can be hard to shift.

How HR Can Help Break the Cycle

Here’s a deeper look into the reasons behind this common disconnect. few practical ways HR can help managers feel more equipped and empowered to provide feedback regularly:

1.  The Challenge of Timely Conversations: Competing Priorities

For many managers, discussing performance becomes one more task on an endless to-do list. Project deadlines, team meetings, and daily responsibilities often overshadow meaningful conversations. Without structured systems in place, these critical discussions get postponed or deprioritized.

How HR Can Help...

Skip the formal reviews or generic advice to “give feedback early and often”.  Try the 10-Minute Questions Conversation (10MQ)—a quick, focused approach where both managers and team members play an active role. In this framework, team members choose questions that help them understand what’s working, their positive impact, and how to enhance their effectiveness moving forward. The 10MQ makes performance-related discussions impactful and energizing, cutting through the noise to drive real progress without lengthy meetings.

2.  Lack of Confidence: Feeling Unequipped to Address Issues

While discussing performance might be a basic managerial responsibility, many managers doubt their ability to do it effectively. They may worry about saying the wrong thing, worsening a situation, or failing to address the root problem. Without a clear approach, these conversations feel overwhelming.

How HR Can Help...

HR can offer training that makes these conversations feel less intimidating.

• This is where the Root Cause Analysis framework becomes invaluable. By diagnosing complex performance issues, HR can help managers pinpoint and clearly name the problem, which is essential before initiating a conversation.
• Once the issue is identified, managers can use the Turn Around Method—a structured approach that teaches them how to describe future expectations clearly without dwelling on past mistakes. This approach provides managers with the confidence to address issues constructively.
  
  

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3.  The Pitfalls of Waiting for Annual Reviews

Relying on annual reviews to assess performance often leads to missed opportunities and unaddressed issues. Traditional “rating” systems focus on past performance, leaving little room for real-time course corrections. Managers are left summarizing last year’s work instead of addressing what matters most: where each team member is now and where they need to be. Without a current, clear view of Work Results and Observed Behaviors, managers struggle to provide fair, actionable guidance, and employees miss out on timely feedback that can help them grow.

  How HR Can Help...

Introduce the Employee Performance Continuum for Fair, Real-Time Assessments Without Ratings

The Employee Performance Continuum provides managers with a forward-focused approach, evaluating team members on both Work Results and Observed Behaviors in real-time. Managers can plot each individual’s current standing and pinpoint where they want them to go, whether that’s reinforcing strengths or correcting off-target work results or behaviors.

• Combined with the Root Cause Analysis process, the Continuum allows managers to diagnose and address specific issues clearly and confidently. Together, these tools equip managers to hold performance-boosting conversations that drive immediate, future-oriented progress.
  

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A Final Note

While it’s tempting to think that addressing performance issues is an innate skill, the reality is that most managers need training and support to feel comfortable. HR’s role is to provide managers with tools like Root Cause Analysis and the Turn Around Method to help them confidently initiate and navigate these critical conversations.

By addressing these barriers, HR can foster a workplace where performance conversations are no longer a source of frustration—they’re a path to growth and connection.

Most managers have good intentions and want to support their team members.  However, research shows that just about 6% of managers are skilled at having candid performance conversations:

The skills to engage in performance conversations don’t come naturally, but they can be learned.