The Manager’s Playbook: Eight key principles for effective feedback.

Feedback is one of those things that we all need to do.  As a leader or manager it’s something you should absolutely be doing on a regular basis.  However, I think most of us would admit it’s not something we do as often as we should or at times are not too sure how to go about it.

What I see on the leadership development workshops I run with new and developing managers, is that when there’s a slightly trickier message to deliver people tend to get caught up with what to say, how to say it, when to say it, ‘should I phone a friend’ and have someone else there, etc!  So, for those of you out there that have got a ‘difficult’ conversation coming up, or would just like to know how to go about it better, I’m going to go back to basics and share some basic principles of how to give good feedback.  However, before we get into them, I will warn you that this topic is one of those I tend to get quite opinionated about.  With that disclaimer out of the way, here we go:

1. Feedback is feedback, is feedback.

Feedback is about sharing information with a person that will help them improve or maintain their performance.

Get the notion of ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ feedback out of your head right now.  It’s not helpful!  As soon as you do that you set yourself up for a particular type of conversation and your beliefs immediately start filling in the blanks about how it will go, creating a self fulfilling prophecy.

2. Focus on the outcome rather than the message. 

What I see is people getting so caught up with what they want to say that they forget why they are saying it in the first place.  My advice, is give yourself time to think about it properly.  Don’t walk into that room until you have clear in your mind what outcome you’d like to have achieved by the time you walk out again.

3. There are only two reasons for giving feedback.

 Yes, only two!  The first is to reinforce behaviour, i.e. ‘yes please, you are doing a great job, I’d like more of that’.  The second is to change behaviour, i.e. whatever they are doing isn’t quite right and you’d like them to do something different.  If you cant pin down why you are planning to give feedback to one of these reasons, then you are not ready to have the conversation yet.

4. Feedback is about giving people choices. 

I very much view feedback as it being about giving people information so that they can make informed decisions, i.e. whether they want to carry on or change what they are doing.  No information = no choice.  Every year, I see this lack of timely information as being a key reason why staff kick back at the end of their annual performance management process.

5. Feedback is about them, not you.

If you have even the slightest inclination that providing that message is about making you feel better, please don’t do it!  Short term gain will equal long term pain.  You have to work with this person, so think about how to approach giving feedback in a way in which you can both benefit from the conversation.  If you are not at that point yet, then you are not ready.

6. Feedback is a conversation, not a transaction. 

Ultimately, effective feedback is about having a discussion, a conversation.  It’s not ‘here’s my opinion’, job done.  I personally think that having a good feedback conversation requires a certain amount of humility on the part of the person providing the feedback.  No matter how well-informed you think you are, they will always know stuff you don’t – it’s their behaviour after all!  So my advice is be curious, find out what they know, what their perspective is on the situation.  This way the feedback you provide can then be explored in its proper context.  You are also well on your way to it being a conversation – which significantly increases the changes of your message being taken on board.  Which then means that the chance of the changes that you wanted to see being affected are far greater.

7. Evidence and impact are a recipe for great feedback.  

If you want your feedback to be meaningful you’ve got to get into the detail – what specifically did they do.  Add in the impact of that behaviour and wow, now we are cooking on gas!  So often I see feedback being based on someone’s opinion or summary of an event/set of actions or is so top level, i.e. ‘that report was great/not very good’ that it’s pretty meaningless to the person on the receiving end.   If they can’t extract from your message the specifics of what was good or bad, and why, they don’t have the necessary information to know what to do or not do again.

8. There is a time and a place for everything and that includes giving feedback. 

I’m now possibly venturing into the realm of stating the obvious, but as I’m already part way there I might as well continue.  For feedback to be effective it needs to be timely, i.e. close enough to time of the event/reason for the feedback for it to still be relatively fresh in their minds.  Ultimately, the more immediate the feedback the greater the impact it will have.  As for where to have the conversation, I’m hoping common sense will prevail here.  However, just in case, it should be one-on-one and free from distractions, with enough time allocated that its not rushed.  Finally, even if you would quite like moral support or a witness, my advice is never invite any one else to the party unless you are at the point of initiating formal disciplinary procedures.

So there you have it, a few hints and tips to help you have better feedback conversations.  Of course there is a lot more to it than what I’ve outlined above, however these key principles should set you off on the right track. Best of luck!

The encore.

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