Feedback. Too much or too little? It depends on who you’re asking:
“Everybody tells me what to do; from my mother to my manager. You’d think I didn’t have a brain in my head. Why can’t people just keep their opinions to themselves and let me do my job?”
“The only time I get any feedback is at my annual review, which I get every eighteen months to two years, if I’m lucky. Even then, it’s sketchy, abstract, and I don’t know what to do with it. Next thing you know, I’m let go, and I didn’t see it coming.”
Feedback. If more people knew how, what, and why to give it and more people knew how to do something with it, everyone and the bottom line would benefit.
Whether you’ve been into feedback avoidance, or you’re known as Attila the Feedback Giver, this framework should help you to prepare for and deliver feedback more effectively:
Approach your feedback meeting with the assumption that you don’t know everything; therefore, you don’t have all the answers.
Allow time for give and take. You’re heading into a discussion with someone who will provide you perspectives that you don’t have.
Develop an outline:
- What’s your goal?
Why are you giving this feedback?
What do you want to achieve by giving it?
- What exactly is the problem?
Who is it about?
What is it about?
How does it relate to the person you are giving feedback to?
- Who solves the problem?
Whose responsibility is it?
How much authority has this person in solving the problem?
- What are the available options?
What are the pros and cons of each option?
Who will benefit and how and at what cost?
- What’s the action plan?
Who’s going to solve the problem or meet the challenge?
What do they need to get it done?
How will you measure their progress?
How will you know if and when the problem is solved?
Despite careful planning and candid acknowledgment that giving objective and timely feedback makes sense, many employers “choke” when it comes to providing it.
- They fear negative reactions and don’t want to deal with them.
- They think they don’t have time to do it right, so they wait until they do. They won’t and they don’t.
- They believe it’s faster to fix the problem themselves.
- They complain that people are unpredictable. They’d rather work with widgets.
The rubber abruptly meets the road when these same bosses get deep-sixed with the very feedback that they avoided giving. Because they got it too late, they may lose their jobs.
Vicious cycle, isn’t it.
Good supervisors, managers, leaders provide feedback to enable their employees to grow and develop in their positions, to take on increasing levels of responsibility and authority, to free their bosses to accomplish the goals for which they are accountable.
Feedback, when delivered appropriately, benefits everyone.
It must be provided on a consistent basis and in a climate that is safe and supportive.
It’s a two way street. Give it and get it. Model it by asking your employees two questions:
What do you want me to do more?
What would you like me to do less?
Listen to what you are being told. Probe for deeper understanding. Ask for examples that would help you see the point that is being made. Rather than appearing to defend your behavior, learn why doing it differently would benefit others.
Providing and receiving feedback can be habit forming. When compared to other addictions, this is one with positive side effects that builds, rather than tears down, human capital.
