Effective and timely feedback is a must.
With annual appraisals coming up, the importance of feedback only gathers more weight. But evaluation continues to make companies, managers and individuals cringe, and that’s ironic, because effective assessment can improve your productivity, enrich a firm’s functioning, and enhance communication channels between manager and employee.
Sheila Heen, faculty, Harvard Law School, and co-author of the soon-torelease, Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even When It’s Off-Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and Frankly, You’re Not in the Mood), believes that feedback sits at the crux of two human needs:
To learn and grow (a key component for satisfaction and happiness; the drive for mastery explains our addiction to video games and apps, and the game of golf), and to be accepted and respected the way we are now.
Heen’s research for her book, which focuses on teaching receivers how to receive and empower them to drive their own learning, showed her that human beings have a predictable set of triggered reactions to feedback.
“By understanding those triggers, you can improve your ability to ask for what you need, and take even unskilled, off-base feedback, and turn it into learning,” she says.
Effective and timely feedback is a must to ensure that all cogs in the working wheel know how they’re doing, says Heen. The fact that one needs coaching and help suggests that how you are now “isn’t quite okay”. “So we’re deeply conflicted about feedback — we know we need it and want it in order to grow, but — in the moment — it can also be deeply painful,” she says.
Why managers avoid it
It’s not just the receiver — conversations involving feedback are the most difficult people can have, which is why managers shy away from it. “Managers have lots of experience trying to coach people and getting a defensive, triggered reaction. When it’s not received well (sometimes because when, where, why or how the manager gives the feedback isn’t ideal), it feels like it’s just not worth the trouble,” she says. For the employee, it amounts to being judged. “Because we are sensitive to being judged, we often ‘hear’ evaluation even when the person is actually trying to coach,” says Heen.
The way out
But how does one get around it? “Criticism is negative evaluation, so it’s emotionally upsetting. Sometimes, feedback is criticism, but more often it should be coaching, appreciation, and positive evaluation.”
For the giver (Boss)
She suggests a three-pronged approach: Appreciation (I value you, I know you are working hard, I thank you); Coaching (Here’s how you can get better); and Evaluation (Here’s how you are judged, or assessed. Here’s where you stand).
Most bosses end up making two mistakes. “Many give too little appreciation, which works wonders to keep people motivated and helps create a foundation for coaching. Or else, they rarely distinguish between these three forms of feedback, and give coaching when the employee actually deserves appreciation,” she says.
To make matters simpler for managers, Heen suggests involving the junior. “Ask the employee what helps them learn. Some like direct, immediate feedback. Others find feedback so upsetting that if you give it in the moment, you will damage their ability to perform for the rest of the week. The giver and receiver should work together,” she advises.
For the receiver (Junior)
Heen clarifies that receiving well doesn’t mean an employee has to take the feedback he or she gets. “Before you decide, you need to understand — where it is coming from (the observations and reasoning that led to the feedback) and where it is going (what the manager is suggesting the employee do differently). Exploring these two questions will improve the quality of the conversations between manager and employee, even if the employee disagrees.”
Heen is in favour of employees being proactive. “They should take charge of their own learning, and be able to say: ‘It would help me know what you liked about my performance. Then I’ll be ready to hear what I can improve’ (asking for positive evaluation and appreciation, in service of hearing coaching). Or they might say: ‘Before I can hear your coaching, I just want to know where I stand. Am I doing okay? Am I on track?’ (I need evaluation so that I can relax and hear your coaching).”
Clearly, timeliness, specificity and the manner make a huge difference in how feedback is received and perceived by employees.
The boss’s feedback guide
Provide feedback regularly. Be honest, and specific. ‘I don’t like your proposal/idea/plan’ is vague. Accentuate the pluses. No harm in giving due where deserved. Focus on behaviour. Indulge in dialogue, not monologue (if you hope your junior will act on the feedback). Be non-threatening. Be a role model. Else, it’s unlikely that juniors will take you, or your advice seriously. Set a time frame, and follow up.
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