subject: Improve Performance Through Effective Feedback [print this page] Executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith wrote, "Feedback is a gift that only other can give." What makes it so difficult for so many of us to give and receive feedback if that is the case?
A lot of it has to do with power. If we give feedback to someone, our motive may actually be to control them. Our resistance to receiving feedback is possibly a resistance to change.
Before handing out feedback, it can be helpful to clarify the reason for it. Below are the five most common types of feedback and suggestions for giving each type.
Evaluation Feedback:
Evaluation Feedback is the most common that you will find in the workplace. Unfortunately, it is also the kind that is the least helpful. The timeframe at which evaluation feedback comes is always at the end. When the performance year is over. At the end of a class that took a week. Once a project has been completed. True, we all need to be willing to rate ourselves, and the evaluation feedback will improve our performance next time. But why not give and get feedback when we can learn from it real time?
Real-Time Performance Feedback:
This type of feedback generally comes from a boss or someone whose own success depends on you. 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.
It is helpful to get clarifying information when you think that you are receiving performance feedback. Try asking, "what exactly would you like me to stop or start doing?" Once you get the feedback, make the change!
Fine-Tuning:
Fine-tuning feedback generally comes from people who are satisfied with the overall job you are doing, but see some areas you could tweak to get even better. 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 shared that when I nodded my head while listening to people in the audience, it made her feel as though I was rushing. WOW! I was blown away because I had no idea that this behavior had a negative effect on my audience.
The key to giving fine-tuning feedback is to share the impact a behavior has on you or others. The person giving the feedback is not necessarily interested in controlling you, or even changing you. They share how a behavior impacts them, then gives the other person a chance to change, or not change.
Feed-Forward:
Goldsmith came up with this one years ago. It happens when you suggest to someone how to behave in advance of an action, rather than wait for after and risk failure. A great example of this type of feedback is when my husband gave his first presentation to the executive leaders in his company. 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 do you think you're doing?"
Slap upside the head feedback should be reserved for only the best of friends. It is very personal feedback that should only be shared because you care about someone and are concerned. 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.
A person giving slap upside the head feedback isn't giving it with the intent of controlling you or even to change you because it matters to the person giving the feedback. they give the feedback knowing what your objectives are for your life and they see that your behavior is keeping you from reaching them.
Summary
Those giving feedback: Think through before giving feedback what the most appropriate form would be to achieve the intention you have for it. Keep in mind that unless you are in a position of authority, it is not your place to give evaluation feedback. You can lead a horse to water . . .
Feedback Receivers:We all suffer from a lack of self-awareness at times and feedback is the only way we can learn what our blind spots are. Even when you don't agree with it, view feedback as a gift. 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.
