Using Feedback To Improve Performance
Executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith wrote, “Feedback is a gift that only other can give.” So, if feedback is a gift, why do so many of us struggle with giving and receiving it?
Much of the difficulty people have with feedback is actually about power. If we give feedback to someone, our motive may actually be to control them. And our reluctance to accepting feedback is probably a resistance to change.
Before handing out feedback, it can be helpful to clarify the reason for it. Here are five different types of feedback and suggestions for each.
Evaluation Feedback: This is the feedback type that is found the most in the workplace.Unfortunately, it is also the kind that is the least helpful. Evaluation feedback always happens at the end. At the end of a year your performance is evaluated. At the end of a class that took a week. At the completion of a project. Sure it’s helpful for all us to gauge how we did, and we may use evaluation feedback to improve next time. But why not give and get feedback when we can learn from it real time?
Real-Time Performance Feedback: Real-time performance feedback usually comes from a superior or someone else who is not successful unless you are. While it may be couched as an observation or something for you to think about, when someone shares performance feedback, they intend for you to change your behavior.
When you sense that someone is trying to give performance feedback, it may help you both to get very clear. Try asking, “what exactly would you like me to stop or start doing?” Once you get the feedback, make the change!
Fine-Tuning: With this type of feedback, you generally are hearing from someone who is very satisfied with the job you are doing, but see some areas where you can improve even more. One of the best examples of fine-tuning feedback I can give came from a course participant of mine. She let me know how much she got out of the course, and then asked if she could give me some feedback. She explained that my nodding my head while she and other participants were talking made her feel as though I was rushing them. WOW! I had no idea that my head nodding was having this effect on the audience, so her feedback blew me away.
Fine-tuning feedback is most effective when you share the impact a behavior has on you or on other people. The giver is not necessarily trying to control or change you. The person receiving the feedback has the chance to decide whether to change or not change, the person giving the feedback is merely sharing how they are impacted.
Feed-Forward: Goldsmith came up with this one years ago. It means giving someone suggestions in advance about how to behave rather than waiting for them to fail and beating them up afterward. Years ago my husband was about to present to his company’s executive leadership team for the first time. His boss coached him in advance as to the proper way to dress, when he would be expected to speak, and even how detailed to make his presentation.
Slap Upside the Head: Two years ago, a colleague who is also a great friend sat me down and said, “You are making yourself and others miserable. What’s going on?”
Slap upside the head feedback should be reserved for only the best of friends. It involves personal feedback that people share out of concern and caring. In his book, Who’s Got Your Back, Keith Ferrazzi gives some great examples of this feedback along with the assertion that we all desperately need people in our lives who care enough to give it.
The person who gives slap upside the head feedback isn’t trying to control you or change you for their sake. The feedback is given because they understand your personal goals and see how your behavior is keeping you from reaching those goals.
Summary
If you are giving feedback: think through what you want to achieve and give feedback that is appropriate.Remember that if you are not in a position of authority, evaluation feedback is not appropriate. You can lead a horse to water . . .
If you are on the receiving end: Keep in mind that we all are blind to certain things about ourselves, and feedback is one of the few ways to discover those things about ourselves. View the feedback as a gift, even if you decide you don’t agree with it. If it’s evaluation or performance feedback, you have a chance to change in order to do better in the eyes of others. If it’s fine-tuning or slap upside the head feedback, you have the choice to change or not.
Wendy Mack is a consultant, speaker, and change catalyst who specializes in helping leaders mobilize energy for change, For more articles and resources on leading and communicating change visit: www.WendyMack.com.