Your employees need to know how they have been doing, not just as a review of the past, but as a jumping off point for working in the future. People need to know what they should keep doing and what they need to improve. These should not just be a series of random thoughts from you to them, but instead should have some structure to them. Feedback is one of the most important things you offer as a leader, so put some effort into getting it right and making it useful.

Feedback should be based on objectives you and your employee have agreed to. You should both sit down and come up with a set of objectives they should meet during a particular period of time. These should be challenging but achievable, and you should have some way to measure progress; it doesn’t have to be data-driven, but you should be able to describe what “success” looks like. These objectives should be based on the firm’s requirements, so use your strategic plan as a starting point. Clarity of objectives is critical; make sure you both understand what the employee should be doing.

Have regularly scheduled feedback sessions. For newer employees this could be every month until they get settled into the role, while more experienced employees might sit down with you every six months. Of course, you can certainly offer more feedback than what is required by a company’s schedule; in fact, you really should be offering more informal feedback than formal. If there is a problem, or if they are doing particularly well, do not be afraid to step in earlier. Whatever schedule you set for formal discussions, make sure you stick to it; employees will start to lose respect for your feedback if you blow it off and treat it as unimportant.

Have your employees keep track of the things they do so you can have a more informed feedback session. If you only have one employee working for you, you can probably keep track of what they are doing, but if you have 20 people then a lot of things will happen outside your sight. It would also help if you keep your own notes over time, but having them keep a record of their work also gives you a chance to see what they consider most important, and that can be especially helpful if it turns out your priorities and theirs are different — that’s something that needs to be resolved.

Focus on the future, not on history. The whole idea behind performance feedback is to improve performance in the future, not just to talk about the past. What does their past performance suggest about their future potential? Is the company going through changes that will require a different kind of performance, a different set of skills? Maybe look beyond their immediate work and also talk about their future career; do they show potential to improve and change to meet the company’s future needs, or have they gone as far as they can go?

Think about what to include in the conversation. Many people like to use “the sandwich approach” when giving feedback; that is, they start with things the employee has done well and set a positive tone, then get into the problems they are having, then finish up with positive items again so the session ends on a good note. This can be useful for getting employees to pay more attention to improvement feedback and help them avoid getting defensive. However, if there is something you what the employee to continue doing, don’t make it part of a “sandwich” but instead, let it stand by itself. Why? Because as soon as you say, “You’re doing well in this area, but…” they are going to focus on what comes after the “but” and not pay attention to the things you said they are doing well. Consider the content of your conversation, and your objective for having it, before you actually have it.

Feedback should be a conversation, not a lecture. If they are having problems, try to find out why they think that is. See how they view their performance and you will have a better idea of what they see as their role in the firm. This might not be the place to ask for feedback on your own leadership style — knowing you are going to ask them that question could influence the feedback you give them — but definitely get a sense of how they feel about their own performance to go along with your own perceptions.

Good employee feedback is critical to growing a business and growing employees. Many leaders try to avoid conflict and prefer to stay away from less-than-happy topics, but that’s what we pay leaders to do. Too many leaders also avoid positive feedback, taking the attitude “they are just doing what we pay them to do,” without realizing people need to know they are working in the right direction. In a lot of work, especially much knowledge-based work, success cannot always be measured by numbers or graphs or other objective means, so you may have to do something really unusual to help your employees understand how well they are doing: you might have to actually talk to them.