Giving Effective Feedback – How to Transform Challenges Into Growth
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A critical responsibility of all managers and supervisors is to provide feedback on how employees are performing. When feedback is delivered effectively to employees, it clarifies performance expectations and increases motivation to excel, maximizing the results.
However despite good intentions the message is often not delivered well, resulting in confusion and a negative impact to morale.
Feedback should be used to reinforce a behavior that is considered to be positive as well as to change a behavior that is considered to be negative.
As the leader you have a responsibility to create an environment within your team where giving and receiving constructive feedback is considered the norm. High performing teams regularly exchange feedback between all team members.
The process outlined below will make it easier for you to deliver effective feedback and ensure that you provide it in a way that will help people learn and change. Your goal is to deliver feedback in a respectful and constructive manner, which will help the listener hear your feedback in a positive way. Although there is no guarantee that your message will be heard as intended, this process will maximize your probability of success.
1. Think through the specifics of your issue. Identify the issue clearly and specifically, identify examples whenever possible. Is this an isolated example or can this be seen in many areas of their performance? How does this issue impact the success of the individual? How does it impact the rest of the team/organization? Think through what you want to say and limit your feedback to a single subject/topic.
2. Put yourself in a positive frame of mind. It is difficult to hear feedback; consequently people will often take feedback personally, stop listening and become defensive. This does not allow for the person to easily change their behavior. Therefore before you provide feedback ensure that you prepare for the conversation. Check that your intent is to create a positive change in behavior. Feedback is something you do when you believe in the ability of an individual to perform at a higher level, it is not about expressing frustration or criticism.
3. Select an appropriate time and place. Pick a time and place where you will not be interrupted, and where the environment is appropriate to the type of message you are delivering. State your desire to support the individual’s growth and learning.
4. Describe the observable behavior. Focus on behavior not the person. When you describe the behavior or action that you have seen, people are more likely to be open to your suggestions. Be specific and stick to the facts. e.g. “You are consistently late to our team meetings.”
5. Make your case. Detail the implications of how this issue affects others, ones-self, or the success of the company. Keep your statements short and to the point. Repeating your message does not improve understanding. e.g. “When you are late to meetings, people do not see you as a committed team member.”
6. Hold your ground and check for understanding. Generally people will react in some way to feedback. If the employee pushes back you need to listen for new information, but hold your ground and continue to be specific until it is clear that the message is understood. e.g. “I understand that you have been very busy recently, but your being late impacts the rest of the team who are also busy.” Often you may only need to go to this step for the person to acknowledge the need to change, in which case go to step 10. If not explore the issue further.
7. Explore the issue. If there is no acknowledgment of the need to change you need to fully understand the total context in which the behavior occurs. e.g. Are you having difficulty managing your time effectively? At this stage the person receiving the feedback may offer a different interpretation of the behavior or apologize and commit to changing their behavior. e.g. “My tardiness is due to a medical problem that requires time sensitive injections.”
8. Describe the positive consequences. To build a commitment to change, describe the positive consequences of the behavior being addressed. e.g. “If you arrive on time to our meetings, you will be accepted by the team and involved in the decision making.” If there is now a commitment to change you can go to step 10. If not discuss the negative consequences.
9. Describe the negative consequences. If the individual is still pushing back you will need to describe the negative consequences of the behavior. e.g. “If you continue to be late you will be placed on a performance plan and risk getting demoted or fired.” If there is now a commitment to change you can go to step 10. However not everyone is open to receiving feedback and willing to adapt their behavior. If you have used this model to give feedback in a constructive way and have still not made progress, you need to decide whether you want to accept their behavior or end the relationship.
10. Plan for Change. The outcome of this process is a commitment and a plan to change. The plan should include agreement of the stated problem and a detailed action plan with milestones for progress reviews e.g. “As agreed we will change your hours due to your medical condition and communicate to the team the need to change the timing of the team meeting to include you. Lets review if this is working in two weeks.” When the behavior has changed, use this opportunity to provide positive feedback to reinforce the change.
By Doris Kovic, Business and Executive Coach of Leading Insight.
Leading Insight is a management consulting company, based in San Clemente, California. Its purpose is to provide services that help companies increase the effectiveness of their people, resulting in greater productivity and revenues. We provide a range of services from leadership coaching and team development, to visioning, business planning, and a variety of workshops on leadership and management.
Please visit Leading Insight at http://www.leadinginsight.com for more leadership articles.
Copyright 2009 Doris Kovic All rights reserved. You are free to use this article in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including a live website link. The attribution should read: By Doris Kovic, Business and Executive Coach of Leading Insight. San Clemente, CA. Please visit http://www.leadinginsight.com for more leadership articles.
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