Using Feedback To Improve Performance

Executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith wrote, “Feedback is a gift that only other can give.”  So, if feedback is a gift, why do so many of us struggle with giving and receiving it?
A lot of it has to do with power. Our motive may be to control people if we give feedback to someone. When we resist feedback, we may really be resisting being changed. 

Before handing out feedback, it can be helpful to clarify the reason for it.  Here we will explain five different types of feedback and ideas for handling each type. 

Evaluation Feedback: Evaluation Feedback is the most common that you will find in the workplace.But is also the kind that doesn’t help very much. Evaluation feedback always happens at the end. The end of the performance year. After a week-long class is over. The end of a project.  True, evaluation feedback will improve how we do it the next time, and we all need to be willing to rate ourselves.  But why not give and get feedback when we can learn from it real time?

Real-Time Performance Feedback: This type of feedback is usually given by someone whose success depends on you; for example your boss.  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.

When you feel that you are receiving performance feedback from someone, it is helpful to be direct and clear.  Try asking, “what exactly would you like me to stop or start doing?” Once you get the feedback, make the change!

Fine-Tuning: This feedback comes from people who think you are generally doing a good job, but they see an opportunity for you to get even better by tweaking a behavior or two. One of the best examples I can give of fine-tuning feedback came from someone who participated in a course I gave.  She told me she enjoyed my course and then asked if she could share some feedback.  She explained that my nodding my head while she and other participants were talking made her feel as though I was rushing them.  WOW!  I had no idea that my head nodding was having this effect on the audience, so her feedback blew me away.

The key to fine-tuning feedback is offering what impact someone’s behavior is having on you.  The giver is not necessarily trying to control or change you. The person receiving the feedback has the chance to decide whether to change or not change, the person giving the feedback is merely sharing how they are impacted.

Feed-Forward: Goldsmith came up with this one years ago. It means giving someone suggestions in advance about how to behave rather than waiting for them to fail and beating them up afterward. Years ago my husband was about to present to his company’s executive leadership team for the first time.  Before the presentation, his boss coached him on how much detail to include in his presentation, what he shoud wear, when he was expected to speak and more.

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’s going on?”

This is the kind of feedback that only great friends can give.  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.

Slap upside the head feedback is not given with the intent of controlling or even changing for the sake of the person giving the feedback. They speak up because they know where you want to be and see that you are getting in your own way.
Summary
Feedback Givers: Before you give feedback, think through your intention and the type of feedback that fits best.Remember that if you are not in a position of authority, evaluation feedback is not appropriate.  You can lead a horse to water . . .

Those on the receiving end of feedback:  remember that we are all unaware of how we come across at times, and feedback is the way we learn about these areas and have the opportunity to correct them.   Even if you ultimately disagree with the feedback, accept it as a gift from the person giving it. 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.

Wendy Mack is a consultant, speaker, and change catalyst who specializes in helping leaders mobilize energy for change, For more articles and resources on leading and communicating change visit: www.WendyMack.com.