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Feedback: The fuel that drives improved performance
Giving feedback: Catching people doing things right
At the heart of good coaching is the provision of effective feedback. It not only helps people correct mistakes before they become habits, but it also reinforces positive behaviours and helps people achieve their goals. It is not an exaggeration to describe feedback as “the fuel that drives improved performance”.
For an effective leader as coach, giving feedback immediately, specifically and regularly is an integral part of their management style. As Ken Blanchard, author of “The One Minute Manager”, points out, effective leaders “walk the job” and spend time trying to “catch people doing things right”.
The guiding principles are that feedback should be brief, very specific, immediately following the observed behaviour and frequent. It should also be given assertively and with the sole intention of benefiting the other person.
When giving feedback on appropriate behaviours, you should first describe the behaviour you are recognising and emphasise the impact of the behaviour so that the person can clearly see why you believe it is important. Tell them how you feel about what they did – be specific. Let them know exactly what behaviours to continue and reaffirm that you think well of them and their performance. You should also develop a habit of looking for and commending specific positive behaviours.
Criticism of poor performance must not be shrunk from. Having said this, the nature of your feedback must depend upon whether the person is a learner, or an experienced person who should know better.
When a learner makes a mistake they must be redirected and such redirection should be free of any implied criticism. You should describe the behaviour you are recognising, tell them what they did wrong and emphasise the impact of the behaviour so that they can clearly see why you believe it is important. Let them know precisely which behaviours to continue, which to change and how to change them. Foster the belief among your team that making mistakes and learning from them is a way to encourage risk taking and self development.
When an individual should and could have known better, Blanchard recommends giving brief and specific reprimands. The format for giving reprimands is largely the same as for praising, except that, once you have explained to them how you feel about what they did, you must remind them that you are criticising a specific aspect of behaviour and that you still value them as a person and as a colleague.
The dos and don’ts of giving feedback
When giving feedback you should:
o Start with the positive
o Be specific
o Focus on behaviour
o Use “I” statements
o Suggest alternative approaches (for negative feedback)
o Remember that you get more out of people if you are sensitive to their situation and treat them like adults
o Try to imagine how you would feel if you were on the receiving end
o Make your feedback honest as well as fair
o Balance both positive and negative messages
o Point out weaknesses but always emphasise strengths as well
o Aim for clarity
o Keep criticism simple and constructive
o Choose the appropriate time and place as well as an appropriate tone and language
o Encourage people to take responsibility for their own development
o Recognise that you will be taken as a role model, so practice what you preach
When giving feedback you should not:
o Be quick to disagree or argue
o Be overly critical
o Be distant or aloof
o Interrupt repeatedly
o Ignore comments, ideas, feelings
o Avoid asking any questions at all
o Appear to be in a hurry to finish the session
Seeking and receiving feedback: Not killing the messenger
The more senior people become the more feedback they require and, ironically, the less they are likely to receive. Those who succeed in highly competitive and uncertain situations tend, to a greater or lesser degree, to be driven by their own inner demons. They often have an above average need for achievement and many of the flaws and vulnerabilities that go with that hunger.
Demons, drive and ambition help people achieve remarkable things. Without the energy they provide, leaders would not accomplish what they do. However, that which drives leaders to succeed can also lead them to cause great damage to themselves, the organisation and others. Demons are needed, but they must also be understood and tamed where necessary.
Lack of openness to feedback will significantly increase the possibility of derailment. Flaws and weaknesses that leaders get away with earlier in their career can completely undermine them as they become more senior. At the same time, it becomes harder and harder for those people around them to give them the feedback they require.
A critical leadership skill is, therefore, that of actively seeking out and learning from honest, open and direct feedback. We must never allow ourselves to end up in the isolated position of people telling us what they think we want to hear.
Processing feedback: A challenge to action
When you open yourself up as fully as possible to honest and well meaning feedback, you will naturally receive good news and bad. Equally, some of the feedback will be about things you are already aware of and some will not.
Good news that you are already aware of is still very important feedback. Enhancing and playing to your strengths will help you succeed in a way that addressing your weaknesses never can. Accept the affirmation as offered and ask yourself: “How can I carry on and enhance the good work?”
Good news that you were not aware of comes as a pleasant surprise. It may also be symptomatic of over modesty and a lack of self awareness. False modesty can be costly. If you do not fully acknowledge and understand your strengths, you can not play to them.
Bad news that you are already aware of poses an obvious question: Why have you not already done something about this? I am, of course, assuming here that all good feedback should be about things that you can reasonably be expected to change and act upon. Quite simply, if it is not within your ability to make changes, the feedback is worthless, if not positively damaging. With this in mind, you should take bad news that you are already aware of as a call to action.
Bad news that you are not already aware of can be a shock, an affront to your ego. How you process it is critical. Listen to the feedback all the way through without judging or defending. Your sole aim should be to understand. If you are not clear, ask the feedback giver to be more specific and to give examples. Try to hear the feedback as that person’s experience of you. Equally, you should ask for feedback you have not been given but would like to hear. Finally, thank the person, it is never easy to give negative feedback.
The important point here is never to take feedback as a judgement of who you are. It is about what you do, your behaviour, and you are always free to change your behaviour in some way. Your focus must not be on how bad the feedback is, but on what you are going to do differently.
Foundation skills
Taken together with the skills of rapport building, questioning, listening and attending, which were discussed in the previous article in this series (click here if you missed it), the skills of giving and receiving feedback are the foundation skills of great coaching and great leadership. Clearly, many other skills and qualities are required, but without mastering these core underpinning skills you are unlikely to reach your full potential as a leader.
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