[ Volume Twenty Eight ]

Article Overview: You can ensure your feedback has the desired impact by the manner and approach you use to deliver it. The 10 commandments outlined in the following article will not only improve the effectiveness of the feedback you give, but also help to greatly assist your persuasiveness when dealing with staff or peers.

There are times in any manager's life when they would love to just put someone in their place. Often the tension has been building for some time - an inappropriate joke here, a missed deadline there - and finally, the employee steps over the line (or at least your line) and you feel compelled to offer what you think is constructive criticism. But before you open your mouth to share your well intentioned words of wisdom, carefully consider the potential impact.

If you don't want to set the stage for a future of avoidance, passive/aggressive behaviour and constant tension, it's a wise investment for you to work through how best to deliver feedback so it results in positive outcomes.

What Is Feedback?

Put simply, feedback is communication to a person or a team of people regarding the effect their behaviour is having on another person, the organisation, the customer, or the team. Feedback can be defined in two ways:

1. Positive: communicating about good performance.

2. Constructive: informing about an area in which performance could be improved.

In a business context, feedback is not just downwards, from manager to team member. The development of 360 degree feedback as a review tool has meant that many people have experienced giving and receiving anonymous feedback as part of performance reviews.

What Isn't Feedback?

Although the following may seem obvious, it's surprising how many managers would disagree that the following behaviours are not actually feedback:

Criticism: The most popular meaning of criticism is "disapproval expressed by pointing out faults or shortcomings". Calling feedback criticism severely limits its meaning. In a business or behavioural context, feedback focuses on the action, not the person, with the intent of clarifying where someone stands in relation to agreed standards of behaviour or performance.

"Dumping": this happens when someone unloads frustrations that have built up over some time. If the employee is unaware of their behaviour, dumping can be incredibly destructive and damaging. While the manager may feel better in the short term that they've got things off their chest, the target of their unloading has been given an unfair burden, often with little or no warning. It benefits no-one.

Projecting: Managers can sometimes accuse their staff of the very things which they themselves are guilty of, putting the blame and responsibility for problems onto someone else.

The Ten Commandments for Giving Feedback With Positive Impact

Although these principles apply for both positive and constructive feedback, greater focus is given here to constructive feedback as it is the area which generally has the most challenges.

Before giving feedback, you should:

1. Assess the Current Relationship

a) What is the nature of the relationship? Formal, informal or a mixture of both?

b) Are there clear goals and expectations about what behaviour and performance contributes to the achievement of those goals? If not, then feedback will always be perceived entirely through the employee's frame of reference, which is potentially an unhealthy situation.

c) What feedback have you given to date? Every time a person is corrected, no matter how well it is done, a withdrawal is taken from the employees "emotional bank account". If you do not have a history of making good deposits with that employee, then it's highly likely that your feedback will have a far more adverse impact than you realise.

2. Know Your Staff

a) How much do you know about their personal life? There may be an explanation for their behaviour that you had not considered.

b) Do you know their personality type? Often this can provide clues into what may be causing the behaviour.

c) How have they responded to past feedback?

3. Plan Your Process:
Documentation is always crucial. Outlining the issue, possible solutions and a draft action plan allows you to anticipate responses and gives the staff member receiving feedback a range of options. That said, you must be prepared to go beyond the official documentation. Ideally, such forms are completed to confirm the review has taken place, not during the review itself.

4. Identify Your Opportunity:
There are good and bad times to give feedback. Positive feedback can be delivered by handwritten note or email, but is very powerful if done publicly as part of group meetings to praise and encourage. Constructive feedback is always best given one on one.

5. Communicate Honestly and Graciously:
Stating the truth outside of the context of a supportive relationship can sometimes be quite damaging and destructive. "Telling it like it is" can sometimes be a smokescreen for either dumping or projection; sometimes both simultaneously. Although you cannot control how the other person receives feedback, you can couch feedback in ways that communicate that the person is still appreciated and accepted.

6. Emphasise The Positive:
Wherever there is an upside, focus on it. This is not false praise, or an unrealistic "glass half full" approach. Effective feedback relies on taking a positive attitude to the staff member and the situation. The 'praise sandwich' approach is also an effective option for consideration: start with a positive, then provide constructive feedback, and then end with a positive.

7. Be Specific:
At all costs, avoid generalisations. There is nothing more disempowering to someone than receiving vague, immeasurable feedback that offers no guidance about exactly what behaviours are causing the problem, or specific suggestions that outline possible solutions.

8. Focus on the Behaviour, Not The Person:
In sporting terms, "play the ball" and leave any personal bias at the door. Although different personality types have certain tendencies, they are just that - tendencies that can be helpful in some situations and unhelpful in others. "This is just the way I am" may be an explanation, but not an excuse.

9. Own Your Feedback:
Remember, these are your perceptions, not anyone else's. Only speak for others as a last resort when it is either clear that the problem is shared by many people and an intermediary is required, or they cannot speak for themselves due to a power imbalance (e.g. it's their manager requiring the feedback!).

10. Allow Time for Reflection and Response:
What is said may come as a complete surprise, and take some time to get adjust to. The party receiving feedback should always have a right of reply, unless they have clearly breached policy that is a transgression deserving termination. If they do not accept your feedback at first, you may need to consider offering it again in a different way.

Conclusion

Providing good feedback is a crucial skill to master, but is also one of the more advanced management disciplines. It takes courage, effort and a highly attuned awareness to others to be able to notice behaviour that should receive feedback. Then it takes patience, wisdom and courage to know how best to deliver it. Even positive feedback requires some forethought and planning to ensure it has maximum impact. In a healthy work environment, feedback is given naturally on a day to day basis as required - not just at 'performance review' time. Follow the commandments above, and you are more likely to reap the rewards of staff that respond positively to the feedback you provide.

References:

http://humanresources.about.com/cs/communication/ht.Feedbackimpact.htm

Dictionary Definition of Criticism
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=criticism

Giving and Receiving Feedback
http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/growth/feedback.html

Distance Consulting
http://home.att.net/~nickols/feedback.htm

Covey, Stephen R. "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.

Handling Criticism With Honesty And Grace
http://www.pertinent.com/articles/communication/kareCom8.asp

How To Give Good Feedback
http://pf.fastcompany.com/magazine/17/feedback.html

 

About Regent Recruitment Regent Recruitment is a consultancy that assists leading Australian employers to attract and retain talented staff on a contract, temporary or permanent basis. Whether we are filling one permanent role or recruiting contract staff for a 400-seat call centre, we deliver the same high level of service. Operating nationally, the company is unique in that it combines the capabilities of a large-scale multinational recruitment firm with exceptional service levels typically only associated with small boutique agencies. How can we assist you? We would welcome the opportunity to have a confidential meeting to discuss your staffing needs in more detail. If you are interested, in the first instance please call Howard Mereine, Group General Manager, on (03) 8646 9150 or e-mail Howard at hmereine@regentrecruitment.com.au. We look forward to speaking with you. You can also join the dialogue on our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter pages.

This article was licenced by Regent Recruitment for the Regent Recruitment client newsletter.
Written by Victoria Small and Paul Quinn for Quinntessential Marketing Consulting Pty Ltd.


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