Leadership Competency #9
Provide Feedback

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A consistent and fundamental process for managing performance can yield:

Improved business results	Motivated employees
Higher morale and satisfied employees	Increased productivity
Developing, growing employees	More effective leaders

Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first.
Frederick Wilcox

1. Be descriptive - state specific and observable behaviors -- rather than providing inferential comments which interprets (perhaps incorrectly) what has happened     

• Observation: noting or recording facts or information gained through personal experience and other reliable sources of objective data (Ex: "Your reports have been late twice this month.")    
• Inference: Something implied, concluded or assumed from data given; based primarily on personal interpretation (Ex: "You are always so disorganized...")       
• The inferred comment does not give the receiver anything to work with; the likely response is defensiveness; the observing example is specific.

2. Describe the observed behavior and its impact as well as the consequences of the observed behavior  (Ex: "Chris, in today's project update meeting, you did not have your analysis completed.  You shuffled papers, had no slides and finally admitted you were not prepared. (Specifically observable behaviors). Without your analytical information, this team is stuck and will be fall behind." (The impact of those behaviors).    

3. Offer a suggestion of what might be preferred  (Ex: "Chris, this team needs your preparation and analytical expertise to stay on target with this project. It is unacceptable to come unprepared because it puts everyone behind.  If you find yourself falling behind, come to me well in advance of the meeting and let's see what needs to be done to bring everything up to date.")

4. Timing and circumstances in giving feedback:

• Your state of mind and the employee's state of mind (Are you feeling angry and vengeful?  Schedule for later!)   
• The receiver's ability to change - are you asking for the impossible?   
• Timing - give the feedback (negative or positive) as soon after the event as possible   
• Surroundings - are you private enough for this conversation?  You don't want anyone else to overhear or inhibit the receiver's ability to respond; you'd like a conversation to ensue.

One piece of advice someone gave me long ago as a manager was "Catch people in the act of doing good!"  Great advice--feedback is too often focused on the negative - don't overlook the positive.  Don't you like it when someone comments positively on your actions? And maybe you work just a bit harder to earn futher praise?  It works the same way for other people!

Work through the Managerial Best-Practices Self-Check for the third step of the process. Remember, the intent is not to "score" your responses, but to stimulate thinking about your organization, to give you the opportunity to assess whether you are observing important managerial behaviors and practices. Your own determination about the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction and the importance of these desired behaviors and practices will indicate whether developmental actions might be required.

Note: Though the check-up is written with an organizational focus, any individual manager can complete the assessment for his/her own use.

• Check Satisfied / Not Satisfied and the Importance of managerial feedback practices here:

  	Satisfied	Not Satisfied	Important?
  Managers let people know when results are not up to expectations.
  Managers accurately define strengths and developmental needs in others.
  Managers encourage personal and professional growth.
  Managers give timely, specific and constructive feedback.
  Managers stimulate others to make changes and improvements.
  Managers let people know when they are performing well.
  Managers create an atmosphere of trust with open and honest conversation.

  
  Providing effective feedback to let people know how they are performing against expectations is critical to the on-going attainment of the organizational goals, creating an environment of motivated employees and addressing performance issues early. 
  
  Responses in the Not Satisfied column could mean that people are not receiving timely and objective feedback. Also, if clearly defined objectives have not been set with people, management and the employee will often be confused and at odds on the relevance and importance of the feedback being provided. Feedback is the mirror that we hold up to ourselves in order to receive information on our strengths and areas for improvement. 
  
  We all have "blind spots" -- without feedback we are only guessing how others see us and are likely missing developmental opportunities. Obtaining feedback from several sources is information we cannot ignore. A highly effective technique that provides employees with a reflection of their performance is 360-degree feedback.
  
  Our preferred 360-feedback system,  20/20 Insight GOLD and the 360Smart Kit -- a complete "how-to" for multi-rater feedback -- are tools that provide the basis for improving performance by being the mirror of how others see our performance.

  20/20 Insight GOLD  20/20 Insight GOLD® is a breakthrough, multi-source individual and organizational feedback system. Its state of the art software and support system transforms what was once a rigid, complex, expensive and exclusive technology into a program that every size and type of organization can use with all employees.

   That’s Step #3 of the  Managing Performance Self-Check
  
  Take the complete assessment on our website

  Having assessed your organization's management practices, you may have found some areas where
  management development would assist in creating a more productive, results-oriented environment.
   
  In what areas do you excel and where do you need to improve organizational or individual practices to 
  best serve your employees and to get best results?

  If you would like to retain a copy of this self-check, print a copy now; your results will be lost when you close this document.

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  Managing Performance
  The Process

  This fundamental process and these techniques work in all organizations. People want to know what is expected, how they are performing and to be fairly evaluated and recognized. A consistent process keeps the organization focused on business results as well as the growth and development of the organization's most important investment and asset, the people.Be more aware of yourself -- look into your mirror - check your own practices and attributes. As a leader, be knowledgeable about what people expect and how well you provide that leadership.