Effective Feedback
Seven Guiding Principles
Little and often: research shows clearly that
people can only handle one or two pieces f feedback in a single session. If you try to give more than this in an
effort to “get it all done in one go”, you will overload the individual. The result will frequently be that none of
the messages will be heard or accepted.
Focus on behaviours not beliefs: our brains
are very good at making assumptions based upon limited supporting
evidence. Whilst a very useful attribute
in evolutionary terms (that tree moved so there must be a lion behind it – run
away!) it isles helpful in terms of getting people to accept their
shortcomings. If you focus on what you
believe rather than what you have actually seen or hear, you risk misreading
the situation and losing credibility or alienating your member of staff.
Back up with facts: the natural
reaction of many people is to become defensive when they perceive they are
being criticised. Some people will
reject feedback outright and argue against your message. It is a fundamental requirement that you can
support your message with evidence.
Balance positive and negative: most people
find feedback more acceptable if there is a balance between the positives and
negatives. The traditional approach is
the “feedback sandwich” where you start on a “high”, progress to the criticism
and finish on another high. This does
not always work, however, as some people tend to filter out selectively either
the good or the bad message – dependent on their personality and
self-esteem. In these cases, you need to
make a careful judgement as to the best way to balance your message to ensure
it is accepted appropriately.
Support rather than threaten: people will
tend to respond far better if they believe that your role is not to sit in
judgement but to help them improve by working with them. This will mainly be created through your day
to day management style but can be reinforced in an appraisal meeting through
your body language, tone of voice, style of questioning and the overall quality
of the interaction.
Ask rather than tell: if you want
people to change their behaviour, they need to be motivated to do it. Motivation comes from within and you are more
likely to achieve “buy-in” to the changes if you encourage the person to think
for themselves and take ownership of the process. Feedback should therefore be a process of
asking a series of open questions that gradually lead the individual to
identify the performance shortfall for themselves and decide what they should
do to put it right.
Plan when and where: do not
underestimate the importance of allowing enough time to work through the
feedback until the individual “owns the necessary changes in behaviour”. If you have prioritised your messages and
used skilled questioning, this can be done quite quickly but you should always
allow enough time so that you do not have to rush off before you have achieved
your aim. On the other hand, a good
feedback session is very tiring mentally for both parties and if you find that
you are taking much more than an hour and a half, you will need to call a halt
and pick up another day. Clearly you
also need to ensure that you give feedback somewhere where you can be assured
of privacy and the ability to avoid interruptions.
