In the March/April 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review, psychologist Marcus Buckingham and his colleague Ashley Goodall present compelling arguments in favor of changing the way managers offer feedback. They reveal that telling employees what we think of their performance lacks credibility in the eyes of the employee: The feedback is only your subjective opinion of their performance. Criticism makes people shrivel. Telling them what they can do to improve their performance may be counterproductive as well. He offers new ways to give effective feedback.
Buckingham’s work applies to managers correcting their colleagues’ writing. Simply crossing out a word and replacing it does not help the writer improve. Saying that you think a piece of writing is good or bad is just saying what you think. By adhering to a set of writing standards such as maintaining an average sentence length of around 20 words, you create objective standards instead of mushy subjectivity.
What Works?
Buckingham suggests several ways to give effective feedback:
Look for outcomes. When a team member produces a great outcome, say immediately, “That! Yes, that!” Give immediate feedback, but not in the form of a pat on the back and a hearty, “Good job!” Stop work for a moment and ask the person what they were thinking when they said or did what produced an excellent outcome. This kind of feedback may look like praise, but it’s actually self-discovery for the team member: Wow! I went through this process and I produced that result!
Replay your instinctive outcomes. Remember that you are “by no means the authority on what objectively good performance is,” and your team member knows it. Instead of bland praise, say what is true for you. As Buckingham writes, “Use phrases such as ‘This is how that came across for me,’ or ‘This is what that made me think,’ or even ‘Did you see what you did there?’” By saying the what impact your team member had on you, you share the only thing you can be sure about, which is your own experience.
Never lose sight of your highest-priority interrupt. When someone screws up, we have a strong urge to stop everything and tell them what they did wrong and how to do better. Sometimes this is a necessity, but as Buckingham says, doing so in merely remediating, “and remediating not only inhibits learning but also gets you no closer to excellent performance.” Instead, the highest-priority interrupt should happen when someone does something right. When someone is doing something that works, stop her and dissect how and why she did it. Doing so will enable her to relax and embody how excellence looks and feels.
Explore the past, present, and future. If someone asks you for feedback or advice, resist the urge to jump in with fix-it advice. Instead, focus first on the present: Get him to think about three things that are working for him right now – even if those things do not relate to the problem at hand. Doing this puts the person in a positive frame of mind. Next, ask him to think about the past: Buckingham writes, “Ask him, ‘When you had a problem like this in the past, what did you do that worked?’” The person has probably dealt with a similar situation before; connecting the past to the present reminds him of previous solutions.Finally, focus him on the future. Ask him, “What do you already know you need to do? What do you already know works in this situation?” As Buckingham writes, “… operate under the assumption that he already knows the solution – you’re just helping him recognize it.” Of course, you might offer suggestions, but the focus is on the inner knowledge of the other person.
Feedback Stokes Excellence When Delivered Effectively
Instead of vague praise, negative criticism, or didactic feedback, catch people doing something right and coach them to see what they were thinking when they did it. Don’t imagine that you’re an objective observer; embrace your subjectivity. And focus people on their inner resources. Buckingham closes by writing, “We excel only when people who know us and care about us tell us what they experience and what they feel, and in particular when they see something within us that really works.”
When writing within organizations, Buckingham’s advice can work well. Point out the words that moved you. Remind people of their natural ability to communicate. Focus them on finding the solutions themselves. All these practices lead to more empowered, more engaged, more articulate writers.
To read the complete article, go to hbr.org/2019/03/the-feedback-fallacy ©2019 Elizabeth Danziger All rights reserved
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