Let’s talk about feedback

In his book Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed references the aviation industry as having one of the lowest failure rates - just 0.41% and his research suggests that this is in part down to the culture within the industry to encourage open, honest and timely feedback irrespective of who it's for.

For some managers, the art of giving constructive performance feedback can be challenging, particularly if they're worried about push-back or upsetting someone or they quite literally don't know what to say. In order to achieve organisational objectives we need to get those results through our people and so providing feedback, both reinforcing and developmental, is essential.

With that in mind don't put off having feedback conversations. According to the Chief Exec of the Times Best Companies to work for, one of the best indicators that an organisation will win the annual employee engagement survey, is where employees have answered the most yeses to the question ‘have I had feedback from my manager in the last five days?’ So, if you're a manager, make sure you have some form of specific or meaningful feedback conversation with your direct reports at least once a week. That doesn't have to be for long - it could simply be a well-placed piece of reinforcing feedback, taking no more than a minute or two. If you're not in a management role, perhaps it's time you asked your manager for some specific feedback on your performance in terms of a) what specifically are doing well? and b) what could you do to differently to improve or make things even better?

Without feedback there is no development and without development we tend to get disengaged & stagnate, and now more than ever, when so many of us are working remotely, engagement and feeling part of the team is crucially important.

Some top tips for delivering feedback:

1. Be specific – stick the facts, have evidence to back them up & use non-accusatory language

2. Be timely - around 80% of our development is done on the job, so where possible give feedback as close to the event as you can so that it really beds in.

3. Hold the aim in mind – focus on what you want to achieve as opposed to focusing on the issue, articulate the ideal solution or outcome & make sure you use the right language in outlining your expectations of what needs to change – semantics are key to well received feedback

4. Tailor it to the individual - we all respond differently to feedback & development so consider how best to deliver your feedback based on what you know about your intended recipient. Think how they are most likely to respond & what they need to be asked or need to hear in order to develop

5. Make it 2-way – Lastly, and most importantly, always make feedback, particularly developmental feedback, a 2-way conversation. Remember it's their feedback and their development that's important so get them involved - ask lots of open, thought-provoking questions (using the GROW model as a conversational coaching framework here works well). Above all, avoid the tendency of telling them what to do, instead help them to work out how they might resolve said issues and achieve better outcomes for themselves.

Jules MacMillan has been a Coach & Trainer in the field of People Development since 2004 and is Managing Director of Cascade Learning Ltd. For more information please visit www.cascadelearning.co.uk