The art of giving feed-back
Feedback is a gift! Feedback: a managerial skill
In management courses held in companies or in training schools many of you might have had lessons on how to give feedback.
In reality these lessons have not been learned: they are no longer considered a very effective form of transferring knowledge regarding conduct.
The “coaching” approach is considered better.
What does that mean? It means there are techniques for giving feedback and that once you have grasped the theory, in order to understand the use of feedback in practice you have to test the process. Experience will show that feedback is most effective when used with a coaching approach which means that you should
not tell a person what to do but rather try to get the person to think and reason, for better and for worse, so that they can learn by themselves.
In one of these courses I learned that the sandwich approach should apply to feedback. I respected this concept for decades.
What does it involve? For example, you might need to give formal feedback to a co-worker. You will prepare for this by thinking of both positive and negative feedback and in your discussion you will alternate between positive and negative comments like slices of lettuce, salad, cheese, onion, meat and the likes in a sandwich.
Methods for giving and receiving feedback Well, according to this manual by Halogen on “How to give (and get) feedback” this is no longer the correct approach and I’d like to share this and comment on certain points.
How to give and receive feedback according to Hallogen (270 kb.)
Let’s leave aside the Italian stereotype according to which feedback must only be negative…
Or are there still people that get scared when their boss calls them to give some feedback or when someone says to them “I have to tell you something”? ;)
Feedback is the result of an action.
- For example, in communication, we express ourselves, but everyone interprets words in their own manner and the only way to know the effect of the communication is to have explicit feedback.
- In a job search: if I send a cv with a covering letter and then another one and another one… then it is probably worth trying to understand what the market is saying to us after a while, i.e. deriving a form of feedback from it.
- In companies people are continually interacting and the most structured companies evaluate their staff by providing feedback.
Giving and receiving feedback is considered a managerial skill.
The basics of feedbacks
We give positive feedback: it’s always nice to get some acknowledgement. It helps young people understand they’re on the right path and it’s a way to show them their work is appreciated. It builds relationships, trust and respect.
In managerial terms, feedback means:
- Being detailed: having specific elements on which to give feedback
- Being prompt: speaking immediately after the event the feedback relates to
- Inserting the feedback into the corporate context (what is the impact of the action the feedback is provided on within the group and company) and reinforces the conduct so that it doesn’t happen by accident but rather becomes a good practice
- Being regular / frequent (for Italian culture) in order to become credible.
Just like an individual’s motivation might not necessarily be money, feedback can be given in different manners: with words, with a coffee, a lunch, a note, a smile, depending on the people involved and the occasion.
We also give negative feedback in a constructive manner, so that it becomes an opportunity to reflect and improve. The involvement and participation of the person in question is the secret here for giving the feedback.
Always in private! (this applies in your personal life too, does it not?)
It should always relate to an action, behaviour in a specific setting, not the person (this also applies in your personal life!)
You might also think about having feedback from co-workers and reports. This is a very sensitive element in cultural terms. In certain American/English companies I worked for this type of process could have been attempted but in the majority of Italian companies I know it is still some way off.
I do think, however, that if we knew the methods and applied them, it could help us to evolve.
And this is something that could benefit individual wellbeing in companies and the wellbeing of the company itself!
The basics will certainly include the principles of communication.
In GoodGoing! we have Executive Coaches that are ready to support you in evaluating and developing your skills feedback skills!
