Understanding Feedback

What really separates high performing organizations from low performing organizations? Good research
has helped us answer this question. In high performing organizations, you see strongleadership, clear
purpose and passion, quality products or services, a focus on what matters the most, and an overall
culture of excellence. When I say culture, I'm referring to the collective values, vision, norms, language,
beliefs, and symbols that define your organization. Together, these things describe the unique nature of
working in your company.

Culture might sound a little odd to get your hands around. It's about shared perceptions and beliefs, so
it's not as easy to measure as say, sales. Nonetheless, culture at work has been studied by scholars
for decades, and is well known to affect the way people in groups interact with each other, with clients,
and with other stakeholders. Building a high performance culture begins by building a culture that
embraces feedback. Very often, people think of feedback as an interpersonal process.

Well, it is, and for most of this course, we'll discuss aspects of engaging feedback successfully.However,
we need to start by seeing the big picture. So let's be clear when I refer to feedback culture, I don't want
you to think of a culture that supports simple criticism. In a criticism culture, the motivation of the
speaker is to point out a flaw, to make known their disagreement. Or in some cases, to intentionally
cause a problem for whomever they're criticizing. This is an extreme form of honesty that is rude and
very unproductive.

In cultures where criticism is regularly supported, you can expect lower engagement, lower productivity,
and lower loyalty. A culture of feedback is wildly different than one that supports lots of criticism. In a
feedback culture, the speaker is honestly concerned about your professional growth. They want what's
best for you when they decide to deliver feedback. And they're thoughtful about when and how to
deliver feedback to minimize the odds that it causes any friction. The intention is to help others by
engaging difficult but needed critical conversations.

In a high-performance culture, feedback often serves as real-time accountability. People err on having
conversations now, speaking up when needed, instead of biting their tongue and saying nothing. People
in lower-performing cultures fear receiving feedback, whereas people in higher-performing cultures
fear not receiving needed feedback. Win or lose, they want to know how they're being perceived, and
they want to improve. Here are three important things to remember about feedback as an important
part of organizational culture.

First, it all begins with a top leadership team. This is a classic example of leaders needing to model the
way. You can't simply say you want the company to embrace the use of feedback. You have to do so
yourself. This means that leaders must sometimes step out of their comfort zones and be open to
feedback. They often use 360 programs, town hall meetings, and open door policies.Whatever the
method, the employees will want to see leadership walking the talk. Next, it's vital that funds are
allocated for training all supervisors about the effective use of feedback.
They need exposure to why feedback matters. The difference between criticism and feedback, and the
feedback process. Part of this training should include the explicit expectation that they will model this
behavior. They need to understand that in a high performance culture, their promotabilty is partially
determined by how effective they are at using feedback to develop others.Finally some good news,
giving feedback is a skill, and a skill is something anyone can learn with the right effort. It takes time, but
when leaders model the way and appropriate training is put inplace, it won't be long before criticism
fades and the friction surrounding critical discussion becomes minimal.

The effective use of feedback is one of the cornerstones of high-performing teams and
organizations. Learning to truly embrace feedback can take months for a team, or maybe even a year
for an organization. But the effort is worth it, because in time, frank exchanges can in fact become a
positive and expected behavioral norm. And that's when morale and productivity are strengthened.

Discovering Characteristics Of Effective Feedback

When you think about it, giving feedback sounds pretty simple. You open your mouth and give someone
the information you feel they need about something they did. It doesn't sound too complex but in fact
in can be. To be honest, what's easy is to give someone feedback and have them walk away confused or
even angry. If you want to be sure they hear you, understand you, and feel properly motivated to use
your feedback, there are several guidelines you'll want to follow.First, I want you to remember that all
useful feedback is specific, not general. It's common to frame things using general words because we
often feel that to be very specific is too personal, and might cause tension.

That's not true if you're positive in your delivery. If you want them to hear you, be specific. Don't say, I
think you can run meetings more efficiently. When you really mean, I feel that you allow your agenda to
be sidetracked by others. The more specific your feedback, the more it will be understood and seriously
considered. Next, strive to make all feedback descriptive and helpful, not evaluative and punitive. Often
in haste, we simply serve up quick evaluations that sound like punitive statements, even when we didn't
intend to be negative.

If you allow yourself to be more conscious and intentional with feedback, you can then make the choice
to be objective and descriptive while trying to offer helpful advice as well. This way, you move past
simple evaluation towards helping and coaching. Great feedback is also personally owned. You must
own the fact that you're the source of the feedback, not someone else who isn't present. Don't offer
feedback and then suggest that's how the team feels about the issue, or that'show the committee feels,
or that's the way management sees it.

If a group is responsible for the feedback, you can say so. But to the extent it's your feedback?Show
respect and earn respect by owning the feedback. For example, say, this is how I see it. Or, my view is
that. That's what it means to own your statements. It's also true that when possible, you want feedback
to address issues, not people. Focus on the work in question, your observationsand thoughts about how
to change and improve. For example, talk about the report the boss needs, and how it can include
additional analysis, instead of talking about how Bob wrote a really incomplete report.
The more we focus on the issues instead of the people, the more your target will clearly hear you.Next,
remember to give people the right amount of feedback at the right time. The right amount will vary for
each person, so you have to get to know them to understand how much they can typically take. In
addition, think about when it's best to speak with them. In general, the best time will be on the fly or as
soon as possible. But be smart, and look at them. Are they busy? Particularly stressed out? Or otherwise
not in a position to receive feedback successfully? If so, wait a little while.

Until they seem more free and clear-headed. Then speak with them. Another useful reminder is that
great feedback is best defined as a dialogue. As opposed to you simply dictating. For example, consider
leading with a question, such as so, how do you feel the meeting went today? This allows them to open
up and share their thoughts, thoughts that will help you refine your feedback right there on the
fly. You'll need to offer your observations and advise, but they're best delivered as part of a two-way
conversation. These last two are short but vital.

First, good feedback is checked, not unchecked. That simply means that before your conversation is
over, you want to inquire about what they heard, give them a chance to show you, in their ownwords,
that the message was received. Second, effective feedback is followed up, not forgotten. If you feel that
your feedback message is important enough to deliver, then it's important enough, atleast once or
twice, to follow-up, whether that's in person, by email, or whatever channel you'd normally use. When
you use the word feedback, it sounds simple and understandable.

Well, with practice, it can be simple, but thoughtful practice is needed. Start with the guidelines we've
just discussed so that your feedback can be heard, appreciated, and acted on.

Reviewing The Three Types Of Feedback

When we hear the word feedback, we think of telling someone what we think about how they
performed so they can do better. Sounds easy. But just because you give someone feedback doesn't
mean your feedback will help them. In fact, it's common for feedback to hurt more than it helps. Part of
the explanation we've already talked about. That's understanding the characteristics of great
feedback. But in addition, we have to talk about the three main types of feedback. They are, standards-
based feedback, informational feedback, and emotional feedback.

Lets briefly consider each one. Standards-based feedback is information you provide to someone to
let them know whether they did or did not meet some standard. It's about the outcome. For example in
high school we tried out for sports teams and after tryouts a list of names was posted the people on the
list made the team those not on the list did not and that's all you knew. Versions of this happen all the
time. If you work in a call center and don't reach the standard number of required calls in a month your
boss is likely to remind you if you fell short and maybe by how much.

There is utility in this type of feedback. The information does add clarity as to how well or at what level
you're performing. It tells you whether or not you achieved the outcome in question. The downside
standard based feedback is that is not terribly helpful. Telling someone they didn't make the call quota
for the month in the call center doesn't provide them with anything actionable they can use to improve
their performance. I don't want to say that this type of feedback is wrong, it's just incomplete.

That's why we always want to pair standards based feedback with informational feedback. This is
feedback that addresses the skills and behaviors underlying the outcome that is being pursued.Thus, it's
not about what was or was not achieved, but about why this particular outcome happened. For
example, you might say, Stewart, your presentation was odd today. It started really strong, but then you
seemed to lose the group in the middle. Two things really stuck out to me.First, you were really
striving to pack in too much information, and I think people found it difficult to keep up.

Second, after the slide on the South American market, you then went into a lot of technical product
specs, which surprised everyone. The two of these together made people check out and start playing
with their phones instead of listening to you. This is a good example of balanced feedback.It has
standards-based information, Stuart was told his presentation was not great. It also has two great bit of
helpful insight that were informational in nature. The fact that too much information was being
delivered. And the fact that some topics did not fit. With both types in hand, Stewart has a good chance
to improve.

A third type of feedback is emotional feedback. This really is a special delicate form of information
feedback. If unproductive emotions help explain lower-than-expected performance, it's your job to deal
with it. Just remember, no one likes to receive feedback about emotions, and it can be seen as a
personal attack. So if you see an angry outburst in a meeting, hear someone using a raised voicewith a
customer, or if they show you anger when they didn't receive promotion they wanted. Keep these tips in
mind. First, address the behavior immediately.

Then, openly call it a problem but show empathy. Finally, redirect them towards more productive
behavior. So, for example, if you see that outburst in a meeting, you'll want to speak up and say, hold up
Marty, this is starting to sound like a serious argument. I can understand. We've all felt strong emotions
on this issue. But let's refocus on the real issue at hand. We're not talking so much about the decision
you guys made yesterday, as much as how we're going to address this with the customer next week,
okay? In this example, Marty was publicly called out as engaging in unacceptable behaviour.

And nobody wants to be associated with ugly behaviour once it's been identified as such. The leader in
the example was wise then to immediately follow by admitting that we've all shared strong emotions on
this topic. Finally, Marty and the team are redirected to the real task at hand,getting ready for the
customer next week. The next time you think about giving someone feedback, remember your
choices. Standards-based, informational and emotional. I want you to remember to you standards based
and informational together.

And I want you to be brave enough to use emotional feedback when needed. When you do, your team
will know exactly where you stand. So, they can be more focused and productive.

Knowing Your Employee

In some ways, giving feedback is similar to giving a presentation or public speaking, you have to know
your audience. Think about it, when giving a presentation about the adoption of a new software
program to a group of executives, you'd be brief, use very little technical language, andwould focus on
the cost and benefits to be obtained. If, however, you were talking to a group of IT professionals in the
company, you would be expected to use much more detail, all of the relevant technical lingo, and talk
more about security risks and other issues they care about, as opposed to bottom line costs and
benefits.

Knowing your audience will often make or break a presentation, and feedback is very similar. To make
sure you tailor remarks for the specific person to whom you'll be speaking, I want you to consider a few
issues. First is the person's experience level. Are they a rookie or a very seasoned employee? Don't be
hasty. Don't just run over to them and speak to them as you would anyone else. Think about their
experience and expertise. Here's why.

If you speak over their head or if you speak down to them, you'll turn a shot at delivering good
feedback into an exercise in damaging your relationship. When you speak over someone's head, you're
assuming they know too much. When the other person gets lost, their confidence takes a hard hit. And
they very often shut down right there in the conversation, and just nod instead of speaking up to say
anything. On the other hand, if you talk under someone, you won't hurt their confidence, but you
certainly will insult their intelligence. No professional wishes to be addressed in a manner that makes
them feel like you think they're six years old.

They'll either shut down and contemplate their contempt for you, or they'll blurt out defensively to
explain what they know. If you are in any way unsure about their experience on a given topic, here's the
safe play. Let's say you need to talk to them about some financial process. Don't start by saying, you do
know the first step before you ever enter a transaction is to check with your counterparty, right? That's
very likely to sound demeaning. Instead, start by probing.

Consider saying, okay, why don't we start by having you explain your understanding of the process? That
way, there's no threat or condescension. Next, after experience or expertise, think about whether the
person has a thick skin or thin skin. That's the classic way of asking whetherthey accept feedback very
well without being offended at all, or find it difficult to receive feedback and can become easily
offended. Neither is good or bad per say, they're more about personality differences, but you'll want to
think about it in order to shape your feedback correctly.

To know which one they are, just think about the last year of feedback interactions you've had with
them, and what their average response looks like. Then of course, you have to realize that they might
not be feeling average right now. So it's time to consider the person's current mood andstress
level. Everyone has tough periods of time where we aren't quite ourselves. The more abnormally
stressed out they are, the more you'll have to shape your feedback appropriately, or possibly find a
better time to connect with them. So those are the major components, their expertise, their history of
receiving the feedback, and their current mood and stress.
This might sound like a lot to think through, but it's not. In just one or two minutes, you can think
through each of these. Then, you'll be ready to think about the right time to deliver feedback, at what
level to start talking, and how much you should try to give. That's the thoughtful way to make sure your
employee is willing and able to effectively process the feedback you need to share.

Delivering Feedback In Context

If you want people to hear you, you need to understand what good feedback looks like. But it's not just
the feedback that matters. The entire context surrounding you and your employee has a big impact,
too. Think of it this way. You're a quarterback. And the quarterback can know the plays perfectly, but
things can still go wrong. The other players can make mistakes. The rest of the coaching staff could make
an error. The field could be a mess. The referees might be incompetent.You need all of those other
factors to be working correctly to increase the chance that your expertise has a chance to help the team.

The same thing is true for feedback. You might know how to craft a great message, but you need a
support of context to ensure effective delivery. Embracing feedback is one part of a high-performance
culture, but the other parts matter, too. Specifically, I'm referring to accountability, fairness and trust,
opportunity, and rewards. They say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so you and your
colleagues in the leadership team have to spend time thinking about all major aspects of culture, not
just one.

First let's consider accountability. This refers to how much we actually require people to accomplish
what they say they'll accomplish. Let me frame it in this way. Is under performing consistently accepted
where you work? That's low accountability. In contrast, if someone under performs a lot, and as a result
they face real consequences, that's high accountability. For feedback to be effective, you have to have a
high accountability workplace. The lower the accountability, the less serious people will take feedback
since they don't believe there will be any consequences.

Next, consider fairness and trust. By fairness, I mean a genuine sense that people will be treated
consistently and ethically as decisions are made. This produces a sense of trust, which is the verything
required for people to feel comfortable listening to you. They have to trust you, otherwise great
feedback can be wasted. It's also important when thinking about culture to think about opportunity. If
you want people to think about using your feedback, if you want them to feel motivated in general, they
need to believe there are opportunities to grow and advance.

People need to feel that trying matters. Opportunity can take many forms, including promotions.new
responsibilities, or access to certain resources or training. People need to believe in the company's
mission, but they also need to believe in their personal future. When they do, feedback sticks a lot
better. Finally, let's consider rewards. The things we do to say thank you and to recognize great
performance have far reaching influence. In low performance cultures, you see a lack of use of
rewards, or worse yet, lots of people receiving unearned rewards all the time.

In high performance cultures, leaders understand the need to connect the use of rewards with the
production of excellence. When excellence is rewarded, people are more likely to believe that the
quality of what they do matters, and that makes feedback a resource they desire. A focus on feedback is
interesting, but it's only one part of the larger culture. As a member of the leadership team, you'll soon
see that each aspect of your company culture works to support or hinder the other aspects. If you want
feedback to work, it needs to be surrounded by a workplace defined by accountability, fairness and
trust, opportunity, and proper rewards.

That's when your skill as a quarterback can actually help the team win.

Determining The Right Level Of Feedback

Understanding great feedback isn't just about you speaking to one person. Individual feedback is the
most common but we also need to consider the proper use of group level feedback. The focus of the
two is considerably different. At the individual level feedback is focused on a person's work tasks, and
helping them improve. It might be about actual tasks or personal behaviors, but in either case the goal is
to propel the person forward. In contrast, group level feedback is aboutgroup interactions, group
processes and group goals. This is feedback about the collective entity designed to bring people
together.

Here's how I want you to think about each of these. Individual feedback is always needed. If you run a
team with even three or four people, at least one of them once every day will likely benefit from some
form of feedback from you. Yes, you have to spend time thinking through the message content, size,
timing and every other issue we've discussed. But the point is that for a leader of a team, providing
feedback is a fairly continuous process. Group feedback is different. The benefits can be great.

Increased clarity, camaraderie and connectedness. But at the group level, you want to supply feedback
more sporadically. The reason is that unlike individual feedback, which poses little risk,group feedback
can have more sizable risks, specifically, the risk is that people don't understandhow to allocate the
feedback across group members. And this can lead to false attributions. For example, imagine you have
a team with six members. The boss tells the whole group that productivity is down, and we just lost a big
client.

Exactly how much is each different person in the group responsible for what the boss just said?Well,
everyone on the team might have a different answer to that question. And therein lies the risk. You say
one thing to six people and they just might hear six different things. So let me give you a few quick ideas
that will help you get the benefit of group feedback without much risk. First, never use false
praise. Don't tell the team they're doing good when they're not. No sugar-coating.

You can be positive. You can encourage learning, but be straight with them. Your credibility is never
more at risk than when you're speaking to the entire group. And they respect honesty. Worse yet, they
can smell insincerity a mile away. When they should be praised, praise them. When they need to be told
they're not doing so well, tell them that, too. Next, always remember to follow up with quick, small
amounts of individual feedback. This might be face-to-face, or possibly by email or telephone. This is
how you handle the risk we mentioned earlier about misallocating responsibility across group members.
For example, if the team needs and receives difficult feedback, but there's one member who was
generally exceptional follow up with them to make sure they know you're aware of their
contribution. Finally, remember never publicly criticize individuals. They can call themselves out if they
want to apologize or address their efforts. You can self-deprecate and make fun of yourself for the sake
of learning, but never pick on an individual in front of the group. You can address wins or losses, tasks
and processes, the work we do.

But difficult personal comments are always provided in private. Just when you think you understand
what it means to effectively use feedback, you realize it's not only between you and one other person,
but often between you and the whole team. One of the unexpected realities for new leaders is how
much time is spent communicating as opposed to making decisions and completing actual work
tasks. Feedback is a prime example. When you learn to balance the use of individual and group
feedback, people will remain in the loop, have clarity about their performance and feel motivated to
continue improving.

Creating A Culture Of Candor

Earlier, I referred to a culture of feedback, the idea that it's normal, good, and expected to
offerperformance feedback on the fly when needed. It's one of the hallmarks of high-performing
organizations. That's why it deserves a little more discussion. I want to really drive home thedefining
characteristic of a strong culture of feedback. It can be summarized as follows: Civility is great, but
candor is even better. Let me explain. To be civil with others means to be nice, positive, and congenial. It
means caring a lot about not offending someone.

Let's be clear, to be civil is good. Civil behavior is a useful part of a healthy team. However, it can't be the
defining characteristic of the team. Great performance means tough conversations, which is why candor
should always trump civility. Candor refers to interactions defined by honest, frank and, forthright
exchanges. No sugar-coating, just professional and somewhat blunt conversation.Please hear me
carefully.

Civility matters a lot, but candor needs to be stronger. Let me give you an example. Let's say you and the
team are watching a colleague practice a presentation that he will offer to an important client the
following day. While watching him, each one of you notices plenty of things that might be
improved. When he's done, he says, okay guys, what do you think? Well, what do you say? The average
team will water down their real thoughts. They'll say, it's not bad. Or, I liked it. Or, it was pretty good. If
they do offer specific criticism, they say something general, such as, maybe it's a little long.

Or, do you think it's a bit too technical? Listen carefully, that's a team entirely too civil. Kind to the point
of not being effective. A team that understands candor behaves differently. When the guy asks for
feedback, someone speaks up and gets specific. They might begin with, hey not bad, but quickly they
add, Mike, you lost me after 20 slides. I think you made good points, but it gets redundant fast. I'd
shoot for 15 to 20, not 45 slides.
Or maybe another colleague says, your facts look good to me, but you dove way too deep into the
weeds, Mike. Three slides actually had spreadsheets no one could even read. I bet you'd be a lot more
successful if you only pull out the one or two numbers you really need and just show those.Now that's
specific, honest candor. But candor does have a cost. As you and the team try to adopt this mentality, I
want you to have your eyes open. Because at first, before candor becomes stronger than civility, you'll
see some people who find frank conversations difficult.

We've been trained in life, not just at work, to be nice, to be polite, to be civil. Breaking those habits
takes time. So to begin, you and the entire leadership structure need to be on the look out forbruised
egos. You'll want to spend a little more time than normal quietly coaching people, so we can learn to see
candor as a normal good part of learning and improving. To kick-start this process, keep these two
things in mind. First, any change in culture begins with the leadership team.

To the extent the employees see you making yourselves the recipients of tough feedback, the sooner
they'll feel comfortable accepting it themselves. Leaders can use one-on-one sessions, group meetings,
online forums, or public town hall meetings to gather tough feedback they need to hear. And the
response they give needs to be thoughtful listening and gratitude. Only then will the team believe you
when you talk about candor. Second, when you see the new behavior modeled by others, overtly notice
it and applaud it.

n some ways, it's simple. You get what you model and what you reward. A culture of strong feedback
defined more by candor than mere civility is possible, but you have to lead the way.Fortunately, this is a
skill, which means the initial increase in possible conflict quickly fades as the team embraces candor as a
normal positive part of what it means to be on a high performing team.

Seeking Feedback To Shape Your Career

It's true that your leadership team will use the performance management process, and specifically the
employee performance review, to help develop the organization's talent pool. However, when you think
about yourself, I want you to realize that ultimately, you are responsible for developing yourself and
building your career. That's why I want you to engage the employee review process, but then remember
that it's only one source of data about you as a performer. What we know about successful people
at work, is that they value the review process, but they always go beyond the formal mandated review,
to find other sources of feedback.

This is often referred to as feedback-seeking behavior. It's a conscious choice to make an effort to
determine the correctness and adequacy of your behaviors directed towards goal achievement. In
general, this type of behavior is thought to have several benefits, including increased clarity about how
one is perceived, a chance to learn new things that assist job performance, and a chance toactively
manage the impressions others have about you. Before engaging in this type of behavior,it's also
important to consider the associated costs.

The first is the risk of looking bad. In some cases, seeking performance feedback can be interpreted as a
flaw and negatively affect how others view you. Next, there is an ego cost. The more healthy your ego is
the more it might feel bruised when you voluntarily seek out help from others. Finally, there's an effort
cost, to think about this type or behavior and then enact the behavior takes time and that's time that
now can't be spent elsewhere. In a summary fashion, let me address these concerns like this.

The stronger your track record, the more benefit you'll receive through feedback seeking. The more
questionable your track record, the more feedback seeking might be interpreted negatively.Assuming
you think it's worth the risk, the good news is that it presents a low burden to whomever your speaking
with. What you're asking of them is simple and discrete and you're not asking them to be a coach or a
mentor, you're simply seeking a few bits of discrete insight from time to time. In a sense, this is a light
version of coaching and people don't view it as a burden, so they're more likely to be helpful.

With that in might let's think about how you choose one or two targets. This is the person from whom
you hope to receive feedback. And we are talking about one or two, not five or ten. That would make
you problematically in need of feedback. Okay, your ideal person is clearly more experienced than
you, not your best friend, but a person with whom you have a positive work relationship, a person who
has good exposure to you and your work, and a person you know to be honest, so they'll give it to you
straight instead of just being nice.

Before you actually begin interacting with them, I want you to always start by making a commitment
to yourself to engage feedback seeking with the goal of improving your performance and not to simply
manage impressions. Also, be sure to make these conversations in person, they're important and
personal. So don't rely on email or the phone. The process is simple, approach the person privately and
ask them if they're willing to give you five minutes to chat about what you've been working on. Tell
them you're just seeking a little feedback from a more experienced pair of eyes.

People love to be experts and they usually wish to be helpful. So with few exceptions, they'll say
yes. Before the conversation, take a few notes so that during your time together, you can remember to
ask about certain goals or behaviors you want to address. At first, it takes a little time getting
comfortable asking for feedback in this manner, but over time, what you'll find is that if you're genuine
and effective at using the guidelines we just discussed, you won't have to seek feedback as often. People
will become increasingly comfortable giving you the feedback you needwithout you having to ask.

Reviewing The Feedback Process

Thus far, we've been discussing feedback as if it's a discrete event. You deliver the feed back and you're
done. I want to encourage you to begin thinking about feedback as a process. It's a continuous loop that
starts and ends with observation. In the middle, there are several specific steps and tactics you'll want to
consider. As promised, let's start with observation. This refers to your systematic examination of the
individuals on your team. You're watching them and interacting with them and in both cases you're not
only helping but you're taking notes. Mental notes while you're actually with them and then real notes
immediately after.

Observation is about you paying enough attention to them and their work ,such that you can creditably
offer feedback when needed. In fact it's such an interesting and often overlooked skill, that we'll follow-
up with the session and dedicate it to understanding the ins and outs of effective observation. After
observing behavior, when you spot real opportunities to offer feedback, next you prepare. You don't
jump right in, you prepare. Sometimes your preparation might simply consist of a few reflective
moments.

Other times, you may see fit to take a few minutes and look over notes you've taken about the
person. The point is ,to be sure you're acting on good data, that you have a useful advice to offer, and
that you've thought about how to effectively deliver in a way that helps them hear you. Okay.When you
initiate the actual exchange, begin by stating your observation and its importance.Remain unemotional,
be very specific and be very concise. For example, Susan, I wanted to share a thought about your
Monday morning briefings.

They are being received well, but I believe you can deliver the same information in 30 minutes or less
instead of the hour we now use. That'll require you to focus a bit more on what's really important and
include less analysis and more of your conclusions. Again, that feedback was largely unemotional,
specific and concise. Next, wait for a reaction usually there will be one. If not ,you need to use a
question to probe for their response. Something like How do you respond to that? If they didn't
respond, use questions like this to elicit a response to help you understand their awareness about the
behavior.

Sometimes they'll know exactly what you're talking about, and other times, they honestly won't, so be
prepared with specific examples and advice. Once you feel they understand you, it's time to discuss the
path forward. Here in real-time you'll be brain storming with the person about how to address the
issue. In the example I used, maybe the two of you can identify one or more parts of the weekly briefing
that aren't really needed. Ideally, they co-create and own the solution.Feedback is most effective when
you're both partnering to find a solution instead of you dictating an answer.

Next ,it's smart to wrap up with a quick summary. The goal is to reinforce the possible solution by saying
it again as a means of closure. If you have any doubt about how well they're hearing you politely ask
them to summarize so you can hear it in their words. And by thanking them and the exchange is
over. Even though the exchange is complete the process is not. Now, through continued observation,
you have to ask yourself, when is a good time to follow-up? Using the weekly briefings example, next
week if Suzanne delivers an hour-long presentation anothersomewhat stronger feedback session will be
needed.

If she nails the briefing in 30 minutes or less, you might catch her in private and say, hey, good job
today. And that's all that's needed. Providing feedback is a large part of what you'll do as a leader, and
you can't look at each conversation as a discrete event. It's an ongoing process. The more you follow-up
on occasion and remain open to feedback yourself, the faster the team will adopt a positive attitude
about feedback as a tool to support great performance.

Observing Employee Behavior

As a leader, it's natural for you to observe the performance of your team. However, how often we
observe and how systematically we observe, are worth talking about. To give your employees the
feedback they need, whether that's on a random Tuesday when you see them in the break room, or
during a performance review, you need to be as informed as possible That's why it's useful to
occasionally reminds yourself what it is that you're trying to observe. When you're looking at
performance. Your examining the person's personality and attitudes, their interpersonal skills, their
technical and business skills, and their character.

That sounds like a lot, but those are the basic areas to consider. And when you remind yourself of these
categories, you're more likely to notice relevant behaviors when you see them. Some managers find it
helpful to organize their note taking, using the vernacular found in the competency model underlying
the performance review. That way as you accumulate notes they're already organized in a fashion that
makes the performance review go much faster. I want you to think about observing behavior from three
perspectives. Noticing good things, noticing unproductive things, and thinking about good things you
don't see.

Hopefully you'll see many good things. These are behaviors and characteristics that are value
added. Things worthy of some type of praise. On the task side that might include fixing a
customerproblem, completing a helpful analysis, or maybe improving a work process. On the
interpersonal side, this might include showing kindness or gratitude, or showing lots of helping
behaviors. On the difficult side, you'll need to make observations as well. If you see flawed work
products, or even work that is acceptable, but not as good as you feel it could be, take note.

If you witness unproductive interpersonal exchanges or personality problems, pay attention. One
additional thing to think about is good useful behaviors you don't see. From a development perspective,
if certain qualities are needed to help a person advance, they need to know. For example, what if you
witness an employee who never shows gratitude towards others? They don't say thank you. They mean
no ill will. They're simply blind to the fact that they don't engage this normal and expected behavior. It's
your job to take note so that it can become a part of feedback you deliver when you're ready.

There are several ways to collect good data, from direct observation to examining work products, to
looking at information provided from other managers or relevant outsiders such as customers.But direct
observation is the best for two main reasons. First, it's first hand data. So the quality is high. Second, the
more you get out from behind your desk and out among your employees to observe and help, the more
you will be perceived as engaged with the group. You do have to actively interact.

By observing, I'm not referring to loitering or spying. I'm talking about making observations while
interacting. It's also important to remember that you can't allow your observations to be random. Plan
some of them. Ideally, once per week, you'll drop by for a five-minute check in, to say hello, see if you
can help with anything and to observe. If your team is large, maybe you check in every few weeks. But
the point is that you don't wait for evaluation time, and you don't wait for them to come to you. Get out
there, start talking, and start observing.
My last tip is about memory. Our memories aren't great. So after each and every significant interaction
with your employee, you need to take 10 or 20 seconds to jot down what you just observed. The longer
you wait, the more the observation becomes fuzzy, so try to capture ideas immediately. One of the
burdens of leadership is that you need to be aware of what your team is doing. It's not about constant
micromanaging, but periodic observation. When you make collecting data through observation a
habit, your performance reviews will be easier.

Delivering Outcome Feedback

Your team members are chasing lots of goals. Some are big long-term goals you helped them
develop. Many others are short-term and mid-term personal goals they set and hope to
attain.Sometimes they'll reach their goals and sometimes they won't. Sometimes you'll be the reason
they did or did not reach a goal. And sometimes, you'll have nothing to do with it. In any case, as the
boss, it's often your job to deliver the news effectively. Many instances come to mind. Probably the
most common are raises and promotions. There are lots of hopes and aspirations surrounding these
decisions, but the reality is that everyone can't get what they want.

The same goes for all of the awards given out within departments or business units. I'm specifically
thinking about awards for some aspect of performance. It's normal to see many people nominated, but
only a few who receive the award. Or think about projects, many projects come and go at work and
some are more popular than others. That means sometimes people want to join the project team, but
they're not asked to. Maybe you have an employee who wants to manage the new account the
company just landed, but you think someone else is a better fit.

Maybe you have an employee who really wants to participate in a prestigious training opportunity.But
you only have so many spots you can fill based on your budget. In all of these cases whether the
employee wins or loses, your job is to make the experience as productive as possible. It's a little easier
when the employee receives the news they wanted, but you still need to be thoughtful.When they do
win remember these pointers. First, feel free to congratulate them publicly if it's appropriate. But always
be cautious not to create unnecessary jealousy.

If they won an award, share it with the team. If they received a huge bonus, that's clearly an issue for
private discussion. Also, don't be afraid to remind folks who reach these goals that you have
expectations of them. If they win the award, you expect them to live up to those standards. If they get
the project slot you expect to see great performance. In the case of delivering negative outcome
feedback, it's a little more complicated because of the emotions involved and due to the social nature of
working on a team. People can be very sensitive about how much others know about their fortunes at
work.

To deliver negative outcome feedback, I want you to remember these tips. First, difficult feedback
should always be delivered in private to help the person save face. Next, if there's a legitimate, positive
frame to be used, use it. For example, if they were nominated for an award, but did not receive it,
you might remind them that only ten people were nominated out of nearly 1,000 employees. So the
nomination is actually pretty special in and of itself. Follow this with an explanation if one is available.
If, for example, you didn't choose them for a coveted spot on a new project team, tell them why. If they
were a good fit, but someone else was a better fit, they deserve to hear that explanation. Next is the
path forward. What can they do to be better positioned next quarter or year To achieve the promotion,
the award, or whatever they were chasing. If there's a new skill, or an objective type of accomplishment
at work that will help them, discuss it. Finally, end with an appropriate affirmation. Tell them you
appreciate their striving, and even though you can't win them all, their efforts are clearly going to help
them reach plenty of new goals in the future.

We all win some and lose some. It's pretty easy to hear about winning, but more difficult to find out you
came up short. However, if you remember the tips we just discussed. Over time, your team will
recognize these instances of not winning as a natural part of work life. And the better you become at
delivering this type of feedback, the sooner setbacks stop feeling like a stigma and start feelinglike
useful feedback.

Delivering Critical Feedback

Sometimes members of your team will need feedback, not about specific outcomes but concerning their
ongoing performance. You might see a certain behavior that's questionable or see a work product
moving in a direction with which you don't agree. To deliver critical feedback effectively, we've covered
some of the essential interpersonal characteristics that will help you. These include things like speaking
to the person in private, remaining unemotional. Being very specific andstriving to be helpful not just
critical. These interpersonal tactics are important, but I also want you to consider the structure of your
feedback.

There's a classic approach to dealing with this issue that is now being hotly debated. It's called the
positive sandwich. The idea is simple. People don't naturally enjoy negative feedback and so they find it
hard to receive. In response, we can make it a little easier on them, by sandwiching the negative
feedback between two bits of positive feedback. According to the proponents of this approach, there
are several key benefits. First, the positive sandwich makes it easier to accept critical feedback. It lessens
the blow, and makes it more likely they will hear and process the information effectively.

It also builds perspective, by helping them see a bigger picture of themselves as a performer, instead
of using a narrower and less informative perspective. Finally, proponents suggest that the
positive sandwich approach makes sense because it's polite and civil, and as such, it's less likely to
offend the feedback recipient. In the last few years, many detractors have emerged. They suggest the
positive sandwich is not the best approach, and they offer several reasons. First, they suggest that when
you try to bury negative feedback in between two bits of positive feedback, the criticalpoint you really
want to make becomes lost and fuzzy.

Instead of clearly in focus. According to them using this approach intentionally creates ambiguity in the
message. Next they suggest that for many employees this approach will seem insulting and
patronizing. The average employee can see right through this approach and will label any feedback
associated with it as insincere. And somehow lacking in integrity. This approach might even leave the
employee to lose respect for you since they prefer straight talk instead of smoke and mirrors. Finally the
detractors have suggested that people who use this technique.

Really aren't using it to help the employee, but instead, they're using it to help themselves. They say it's
just a way for the manager to ease their way into giving feedback, since it's so hard to just jump in and
say something critical that needs to be said. So, who's right? Here's my perspective.The positive
sandwich approach isn't horrible, and it does have some merit, but it's definitely not the best overall
approach. Let me give you a better strategy. A clear minority at the time you can give mixed and
balanced feedback.

But the more important the feedback is, the more you need to focus on delivering one unique message
whether it's positive or negative. Focus is how you ensure no ambiguity or loss of meaning. Now, over
time, it's important that you're mindful about your average, meaning how often you give positive versus
critical feedback. Your average should be leaning towards positive.It's great that some people want
to be nice to others and position critical feedback between bits of positive feedback but most of the
time it's not the productive choice.

People need clarity. The good news is that the more you effectively deal with critical feedback in and of
itself the more your team gets used to it. So eventually you won't even need the positive sandwich
because sharing critical comments becomes accepted.

Responding In A Feedback Situation

Here's an interesting fact about feedback. What you do when not actually speaking is even more
important than what you say when you are speaking. If you want to respond effectively, you first
have to think about what it means to listen effectively. Then think through your response options
carefully. You see, when you're speaking to someone and you've offered a bit of advice or feedback,
don't expect some simplistic response whereby they quickly and enthusiastically thank you for sharing
your wisdom. That's not likely. What is likely is a wide array of responses, which means your job Listen, I
want you to keep in my these great tips for effective listening.

First, face the person. Look them in the eyes. Be relaxed instead of rigid and don't multitask.Together
these things suggest you're physically engaged, attentive and respectful. Next, unless they say
something completely offensive or outrageous, don't interrupt. Interrupting is considered by most
people to be one of the most rude and demeaning interpersonal behaviors. Wait for a clear break
before responding. While you're waiting, you have one main goal.

Seek to understand not to judge or make premature conclusions. It's very easy as the boss to think
you're right. And very often you are. But to have that as your automatic first response is a problem.Two
unproductive things happen when you do that. First, you miss out on the opportunity to fully
understand what they're saying. Which means your response won't be ideal. Second, almost always,
you're non-verbal behaviors betray you, and they can tell you're not really listening.
Instead, try to repeat to yourself a concise summary of what they're saying, the main point and the
supporting ideas. Take mental notes while resisting a rush to judgment. Now let's assume they've made
their point and hit a pause, so it's your turn to respond. I want you to think about beginningyour
response with a small amount of summarizing. That's when you begin by reiterating and paraphrasing
what they said in order to be sure you heard them correctly. And to let them know you did hear them
correctly.

The longer their statement the more useful a summary can be. If the statement is particularly short skip
the summary because if used to often a summary can be seen as a technique or tactic, which means it
can be interpreted as patronizing. Next, you could dive in and say, interesting point, now here's my take
on this. But it might be smarter to begin with a question. If you heard them say something that didn't
sound highly credible, a question about it often brings them closer to reality.For example, if they say,
Janine is always late and that's why my report is late so often, because I depend on her.

You could say, okay, you said she's always late? This almost always makes reality more clear.They're
likely follow by saying, well she's usually late twice per week. To which you can reply, okay, then what
are the other causes we should consider. To take this one step further, if you feel it's time to
impose your preferred solution, you can still benefit by posing it as a question. For example, instead of
saying the answer is to begin the report on Wednesday instead of Thursday to ensure it's done by
the end of the week, you could say, is there a way to shift your tasks around so that you can start the
report earlier in the week? Better still, you can pose two or three quick questions to see if they will
choose one as the solution.

Of course if needed, you can assert the solution you prefer, but the question approach allows them to
step up and adopt a path forward without you dictating it. Feedback involves a lot of speaking and
listening. Thanks to our self-confidence and our feeling of always being rushed, we too often focus on
what to say. That's only half the battle. The more you become a great listener, the more prepared your
responses will be. And if you remember the advice we discussed for how to respond effectively, your
employees won't feel like you're talking down to them. Instead, feedback will feel more like a natural
and expected collaboration.

Managing Negative Reactions

Even if you're one of the most skilled communicators in the world, sometimes you'll meet people who
don't like what you have to say. That's always a possibility when you're giving feedback. You can't fully
control how someone will react to the information you wish to give them. You can however control how
you react to their reaction. These situations pop up more than you might think. And the longer you're in
a leadership position, and the more feedback you give out, the more you'll see many different types of
negative reactions. Consider these common examples.

Someone might question the quality of the data you're relying on. They might accuse you personally of
lacking sufficient insight or knowledge. They might blame others and suggest thatyour feedback should
be given to someone else. It's possible they feel you're playing favorites and simply don't like them. They
might make exaggerated excuses about their circumstances, their colleagues, or their resources. Finally,
it's also possible, they might suggest you're threatening them, and they want to talk to someone above
you or in human resources. Let's be clear.

These reactions aren't common, but they do happen, and when they do, you want to be prepared.When
you're dealing with unexpected negative emotional reactions, there are several steps to consider, but
there's one rule more than any other to keep in mind. Never respond to strong emotions with strong
emotions. In fact, don't respond to strong emotions with any emotion. Take a deep breath and say to
yourself, okay this person is getting very emotional, but I will not. Instead, you're going to follow these
steps by paying attention to the severity of their reaction.

First, if you see a mildly elevated show of emotion don't react at all, there's no cause for alarm. We all
show a little emotion and that's okay. However, make a mental note when it happens because you
do want to be sensitive to the possibility that a pattern is emerging. Next, if you see the person use a
strong negative emotion especially if it's in an escalation, your reaction should be to pause, sit
quietly for a couple moments longer than normal following their outburst. By creating this space
immediately following their show of emotion, you're saying a lot without saying one word.

As a result, most people then become self-aware and apologize or simply move on, with their emotions
more in check. Moving forward, if you see a second strong emotion, a more overt reaction becomes
appropriate. In this case, it's time to name the issue that just happened. Actually say that you see that
they're becoming upset. Tell them that was not your intention, then start unemotionally talking about
the issue again. State the issue, redirect them, and move on.

Once you've actually stated that they need to check their emotions, they usually will, and then you're
back on track. If, however, you see persistent, strong, or any extreme emotions, you have to
escalate passed naming it and move on to providing a warning. Something like this, Tom I see you're
angry, respectfully I have to say that's not appropriate. If you can't be in control and civil, we'll have to
end this conversation and I'll have to speak to HR. Do you understand that? If there is any continuation
of inappropriate negativity, end the conversation and walk away.

Document what happened and immediately contact human resources. Of course, if for any reason you
sense danger, call security. Giving feedback is a normal, healthy part of leadership, but even if you know
what you're doing, sometimes people won't like what you have to say. When emotions are at play,
things can get out of control quickly. If you follow the steps we just discussed, you can help them, and
you, avoid unnecessary conflict, and keep the conversation civil and productive.

Addressing Common Challenges

So far we've discussed many aspects of delivering feedback, including dealing with negative
reactions. However, it's also worth mentioning that you'll encounter a few special challenges as you
work to create a culture of feedback. The first deals with the leadership team. If they're serious about
increasing the capacity to use feedback, they have to model the way. Nothing will stop your team from
taking you serious faster than seeing your boss and his or her boss say one thing and then do another. If
top leadership has started some new initiative to shift culture towards higher performance and begun
espousing all kinds of needed new behaviors, but they themselves are not walking the talk, all bets are
off.

In that situation, here's what you need to do. Bring the group together, and tell them you're aware
that not everyone is getting on the bus the way they should. But that's not an excuse for them to ignore
what they need to do. Tell them you believe in feedback as a part of improving the team.You expect to
hear lots of positive candor, and that there will be consequences if they don't move in the right
direction. Wrap up by telling them that you can't control what others do. But that inside this group you
have clear expectations of them, that will be met. In addition, you can consider the option of providing
upward feedback to one or more members of the leadership team, making them aware of the
perception that not all of them are practicing what they preach.

If your boss is the problem and you have a great relationship with him or her and your performance is
clearly exceptional, then maybe upward feedback is worth your time. Otherwise the risks are serious, so
be careful and pick your battles wisely. Another leadership challenge is how to deal with the past. Since
an initiative for improvement has been announced, and feedback and candor are a big part of the focus,
this implies that in the past we've not been good at these things. Most of the time, when leaders are in
this type of position, they only talk about the future.

This is a classic mistake. If you want to move forward, you have to confront the past, because it's the
very thing you're trying to move beyond. To kick off real cultural change, the top brass should openly
talk about the mistakes of the past. Why they existed, why they're no longer acceptable, and why we're
moving forward. If you want people to break from the past, they need to hear you acknowledge the
past. One final challenge we all face in regard to feedback is the challenge of confidentiality.

To build a good capacity for feedback, there needs to be a sense of confidentiality. There are many
times you will want confidentiality. There will be many times you'll ask for it. There will be many times
you think you have it. However, it's not uncommon to have lots of loose lips at work. One great rule to
remember is that there are no secrets at work. Managers talk to other managers, employees talk
to other employees, and it's simply the case that most conversations don't remain private. It does not
however, have to be that way.

And one of the fastest ways for you to build trust, respect, and a good reputation is to keep things in
confidence. The more your team trusts you, the faster you'll build a capacity for effective feedback. It's
pretty easy to espouse some new goal, such as getting better at using feedback. It's another thing
altogether to do what it takes to make it happen. In the case of feedback, you have to have the top
leadership team modeling the way.

You have to address the past to move beyond it. And you have to use serious confidentiality so
your team will trust you enough to engage strong feedback. When you do, feedback becomes more than
a tool for delivering information, it becomes a real catalyst for improved performance.

Understanding The Future Of Feedback

When I look out into the future, I see several interesting changes headed our way, with regards to how
we gather and use feedback. For better performing organizations feedback will increasingly become not
only more common. But far more essential. First, feedback will become more constant and less
periodic. Today very often we gather data at set times and exchange feedback, at a fairly small number
of set times. This is partially explained by the fact that we don't fully appreciate the utility of
great. Feedback.

It's also explained by the state of our technology. We've made great strides, for example, witness
the slick automated 360 systems utilized in many organizations. But we have a long way to go. In the
future data collection will happen all the time, and most of it will be automated. Starting right now a
small but growing number of companies are using various types of electronic sensorsembedded in
lanyards or office furniture for a variety of reasons. Including tracking an employee's location, mapping
out employee interaction and even capturing emotion, tone of voice and other biometric indicators.

This data can be used to compare employees to one another and to compare teams. Measures like
these can be used to change how work is scheduled in an attempt to increase productivity. Early results
suggest big improvements are coming as we learn more about how to use this new type of
feedback. Thanks to advances in technology and data analytics, we'll be faced with vastly large amounts
of information about you and your team. While at the same time, we'll be far more efficient in analyzing
and using the information.

From an interpersonal perspective, this means that in the future while subjectivity will never be
completely eliminated, it will be much smaller. When a boss is delivering feedback on average, it will be
more data driven and thus more accurate and useful. Another huge shift will focus on the use of
feedback as a job improvement tool, versus a talent management tool. Today, feedback is information
conveyed to an employee that is intended to help them carry out their current role. In the future,
feedback will be increasingly used to change the nature of jobs with the intent.

Of maximizing fit between individual skills and interests and the needs of the organization. With the
advances we're seeing in data analytics, we'll soon know exactly who's good at what and whose skills are
needed so that overall, job fit is seriously increased. Stated differently, technology will increasingly allow
us to leverage people's strengths like never before. Interpersonally, this means that managers will need
to build new comfort and skill at discussing job changes. Because they're very likely to be more common
in the future.

No matter what the data suggests, when you start changing a person's job there is a lot of risk the
employee might be averse to change by disposition, or they might love their job and not want to see it
change. Not to mention the risk of team chemistry that comes, with more constant tweaking of roles. I
mentioned all this to indicate while the coming onslaught of new data might be revolutionary, that can't
happen unless at the same time managers focus more than ever on themechanics, of great
interpersonal skills that provide the foundation for feedback.

Translated a little different. That means that all the data in the world won't matter unless relationships
are positive and healthy.