Giving Good Feedback
The most important question a manager can get from a colleague is "How am I doing?" Because most people have a built-in drive to improve –– and to be recognized for improvement –– they need substantive and sustained feedback, so a short answer is insufficient, even a complimentary one.
Here are some thoughts about how to give better feedback.
Feedback should information, not just opinion. Substantive feedback is more than a top-of-the-head reaction to "How am I doing?" There are four components: information about progress toward specific goals measured by mutually agreed-upon standards. It follows that before you can pass along useful information about progress, you must understand what you want and how you'll know when you get it.
There must be shared responsibility. Although it's true that people want feedback, it's also true they quickly dismiss unfair or unfounded criticism. The difference usually can be measured in how much control they have had in determining how their performance will be measured. Establishing goals and standards requires thoughtful negotiation. Imposing them is more efficient, but imposition is a sure way to inhibit progress.
The objective is learning. Whether the feedback is a spur-of-the-moment observation or part of the annual performance review, the objective is always the same: learning. Evaluation is about change, helping someone move from where they are in terms of competence to where you want them to be. Feedback that doesn't teach won't change anything. It will simply reinforce resistance.
Feedback is never easy. You need to know a lot about the person and the job. Michael Dobson, author of Managing Up: 59 ways to build a career-advancing relationship with your boss, believes that although most managers can describe the jobs they've given subordinates, they don't know enough about what their subordinates actually do. This is especially true when someone's effort (as opposed to outcome) is not visible.
I once criticized a photographer for a mediocre photograph at an important event. What I learned later was that he had stood in the rain for nearly two hours preparing for what would have been a superb shot, and that only bad luck prevented him from getting it. How useful was my feedback, and what did that photographer learn about me that day?
A connection to compensation inhibits candor. If I ask you how you are doing, and your salary for the next year depends on the answer, how forthright are you going to be? Yet in most companies the annual performance review leads directly to decisions about pay. Evaluations leading to individual development have to be rigidly separated from decisions about pay. When they are not, both processes suffer.
Finally, feedback can't be rushed. Richard Farson, author of Management of the Absurd, believes "the currency of praise is time." The same principle applies to feedback. To discuss with care the details of someone's life's work takes time and attention. "Drive-by" feedback is convenient but inadequate.
Trailheads:
- Managing Up: 59 ways to build a career-advancing relationship with your boss by Michael and Deborah Singer Dobson. AMACOM, 2000.
- Management of the Absurd by Richard Farson. Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Categories: Feedback
Tags: Evaluation Goals Learning
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