Note: This article is the second in a four-part series on the tools managers can use to become highly effective leaders.
- The first article is on one on ones.
- The third article is on coaching.
- The fourth article is on delegation.
In the fast-paced business world, the role of a manager is crucial to the success of the team. A recent study compilation performed by WifiTalent found that companies with effective managers have 27% higher profitability. But what exactly makes a manager effective? For new managers, how do they reach the level of greatness they aspire to? For veteran managers, how can they improve their game to continue to foster high performing teams?
By looking at great leaders like Bill Gates, Jack Welsh, Charles F. Kettering, Lane Sloan, Tom Watson, and Henry Ford certain themes of great management begin to appear.
These themes are:
1. Great managers know their people exceptionally well.
2. Great managers communicate constantly about performance.
3. Great managers repeatedly ask for improved performance.
4. Great managers grow organizational capability.
Just knowing that these themes are important is not enough. Consider that the same WifiTalent compilation indicates that 69% of managers feel uncomfortable communicating with individual contributors and 33% of teammates dread meeting with their manager. This indicates that managers also need ways to put these themes into action to create positive results. For each theme, there is a corresponding actionable equivalent:
- If managers want to know their people exceptionally well, they need to have one-on-ones.
- If managers want to communicate constantly about performance, they need to be good at giving feedback.
- If managers want to ask for improved performance from their direct reports, they need to be able to coach.
- If managers want to grow organizational capability, they need to be able to delegate.
This article will do a deep dive into feedback, what feedback is, why managers should give feedback, and what is the best approach when giving feedback to a teammate. The goal is to help inform new managers of this great tool while giving veteran managers bolstered confidence by providing context into why it is effective.
What is Feedback?
Management feedback is the act of providing insights into and evaluations of a teammate’s behavior or work. The goal of feedback is to guide improvements, encourage effective behaviors, and align efforts within organizational goals. The thinking around feedback goes like this.
Managers are responsible for team performance. Team performance is an aggregate of the behaviors of the teammates. More effective behaviors lead to better performance. The easiest example of this is practice. Practicing is a behavior. The more a person practices, the more they engage in the behavior, the better they get, the more their performance improves.
But what if the person is practicing the wrong thing or the right thing but in the wrong way? Then they won’t see an improvement in their performance. Feedback is about making sure teammates are practicing the right thing in the right way, or another way to phrase it, teammates are engaging in effective behaviors.
Why Give Feedback?
Managers are not paid to think. Managers are not paid to just show up and be around in case something breaks. Managers are paid to make and maintain highly effective teams. Managers are paid for performance. This is true if you are a CEO and have a revenue projection you need to hit by the next quarterly earnings call, or if you are an engineering manager with a project that needs to be delivered by the end of the quarter. Giving feedback is how the manager gets their team to perform.
Consider that an HBR Survey found that 92% of respondents agreed with the assertion that, “Negative feedback, if delivered appropriately, is effective at improving performance.” There is also the Gallop Poll that found that teammates are 3.6 times more likely to strongly agree that they are motivated to do outstanding work when their manager provides daily feedback. Notice that the frequency of how often feedback is given is important.
Imagine a world, as the findings indicate, where every time a manager gives feedback the teammate’s performance improves slightly. It would make sense that the more feedback the manager gives, the faster the teammate’s performance improves. This is why great managers are communicating incessantly about performance. Feedback creates effective behavior and effective behavior, when aggregated together, creates better performance. The more feedback given; the faster effective behaviors are formed.
The Purpose of Feedback
As managers deliver feedback it is important to remember that the purpose of feedback is about encouraging effective behaviors. If we dissect that statement a little bit, we see that encouragement means to inspire with hope and effective behaviors is about doing the right thing in the right way. So essentially the purpose of feedback is to inspire the recipient to do the right thing in the right way by using hope.
Well, what does that mean?
That means that feedback is essentially about the future. After all, hope is about the future, of things yet to be. In addition, managers cannot inspire past behavior, they can only inspire future behavior. Therefore, it is also safe to conclude that feedback is not about punishment because punishment is about the past.
The greatest example we have of this at ACV is our blameless postmortem process. The purpose is to find ways of doing things better in the future, not about assigning shame to mistakes made in the past. It is worth keeping in mind that punishment does not lead to the right behavior; it only leads to avoiding the wrong behaviors.
Seen this way, feedback is one of the best tools a manager can leverage to inspire their teammates to perform better.
How to Give Feedback
For managers that are concerned about giving feedback because they don’t want to introduce conflict or they are worried that their teammates won’t receive it well, keep in mind that 96% of employees said that receiving feedback regularly is a good thing, and that 83% of employees really appreciate receiving feedback, regardless if it’s positive or negative. The key is to deliver the feedback appropriately.
To ensure that the main message of the feedback is heard there is a recommended feedback model. The model has four parts:
1. Ask if the recipient wants to hear the feedback.
2. Describe the behavior that the feedback is about.
3. Describe the impact of the behavior.
4. Discuss next steps.
Ask
By asking the teammate if they are open to hear feedback, the manager gives the teammate the opportunity to offer a different time or place. This is important because it helps ensure that the teammate is in the proper position to hear what is being said to them. The teammate should be comfortable and attentive. If the teammate is busy or otherwise not ready to receive feedback, even if the manager still gives it, they won’t hear it. By asking, the manager ensures they have the right environment for delivering feedback. An example of asking could be:
May I give you some feedback?
Can I share something with you?
The key words for this part are, “May I”.
Describe the Behavior
Remember that feedback is not about the past, but it is still important to describe what happened to ensure everyone has the same context. When describing the behavior, the manager should stick to just the provable facts and not try to guess motivation. The manager should tell the teammate what they saw, heard, or read, but not what they inferred. An example of describing could be:
When you roll your eyes in meetings when others talk…
When you say, “you guys don’t get it”…
When you come late to a meeting…
The key words for this part are, “When you”.
Describe the Impact
Sometimes the teammate is aware of the impact their actions have and sometimes not. The point of this part is to describe the consequences the behavior previously described created. This should be just what is provable, and the manager should not guess at potential impacts. It is important to call out the impact to help the teammate see things from a new perspective. An example of describing the impact could be:
Here’s what happens, we lose good people.
Here’s what happens, you lose opportunities that you want.
Here’s what happens, I lose trust in you to tackle future assignments.
The key words for this part are, “Here’s what happens”.
Discuss Next Steps
This final part is the most important part that needs to be done whether the feedback is positive or negative. This is the part where the manager gets to encourage effective behavior. If the feedback is positive, the manager should be explicit that they want to see that kind of behavior continue. If the feedback is negative, the manager should work with the teammate to figure out how to change the behavior in the future. It is important that this is collaborative because the teammate must rely on their effort to change and if the manager just imposes a change, the teammate will be less likely to act upon it. An example of discussing next steps could be:
What can you do about this?
How can I help you?
Any thoughts on how you can eliminate this minor issue?
The key words for this part are, “What can you do about this?” or in the case of positive feedback, “Thank you, keep it up”.
Putting it All Together
When using this approach to feedback, the conversation may look something like this:
“Hey Jack, may I give you some feedback?” “When you show up late to meetings here’s what happens. We end up having to go over topics again and then the meeting takes longer than it should. Is something preventing you from coming on time? How can I help you?”
“Hey Jill, may I share something with you?” “When you finish your work on time here’s what happens. We end up delivering our project on time and within budget. I really appreciate the effort you put in to meet your commitment. Thank you and keep up the excellent work.”
While managers don’t always have to follow this model exactly, it is highly recommended to try it until it feels comfortable. Remember that the key here is to encourage effective behavior.
Wrapping Up
When delivered appropriately, feedback has proven to be an effective way for managers to encourage effective behavior from their teammates and improve the team’s overall performance. With every piece of feedback given, a teammate has the chance to improve their performance, and studies have found that frequent feedback helps the teammate improve faster. Based on these reports, it becomes clear why great managers talk incessantly about performance. Managers should strive to give more feedback going forward.
For folks looking for more information regarding feedback I highly recommend the Manager Tool’s podcast on the topic.
Note: This article is the second in a four-part series on the tools managers can use to become highly effective leaders.
- The first article is on one on ones.
- The third article is on coaching.
- The fourth article is on delegation.
