Feedback: how to get it wrong, how to get it right
Getting it wrong: Graham’s story
Graham is a vet who worked for a veterinary pharmaceutical company. He worked alongside the marketing team and was the medical expert who could advise and guide them on what to say and what not to say. His expertise and years of experience in the field were crucial factors in maintaining the credibility and integrity of the products and therefore of the company.
At his next six-monthly performance review, his manager raised a number of issues relating to work he had done several months before and questioned a recent decision he had made that someone in a different department had apparently challenged.
The tone of the meeting was negative and critical.
Graham was immediately on the defensive, feeling that his professional judgement was being called into question by someone who was not qualified to do so, and also feeling that the purpose of the meeting was to find fault rather than find solutions. Most of the issues raised were so out of date that they couldn’t be relevant any more – if they had been important, surely they should have been raised at the time?
Graham left the meeting in a very bad mood. He knew that on medical matters, he was the expert and he found it insulting that his decisions were being questioned by non-medical people. If the team hadn’t understood his decisions, they could have come to him directly and he would willingly have explained. To have used official channels instead and to have made it part of a formal review made him feel that he was under attack. He began to look for another job.
Clearly Graham’s team was not a supportive one and communication between members was not open and collaborative. Graham’s position within the team was as the veterinary expert – making medically based decisions was the job he was being paid for. The manager’s decision to raise these issues at a performance review rather than deal with each one as it arose reflects badly on that manager, making it look as if maintaining a position of power was more important than encouraging an effective team. The end result was that Graham left the company, so everyone lost out.
Getting it right: an Epic story
Epic Learning and Epic Sharing are Nat and Karl’s babies, nurtured and developed over 9 years from an exciting idea to a successful business, with a team dotted around the country and increasingly high profile clients. To some extent the team and the management processes have grown organically, flexible and responsive to the needs of particular projects, but Nat and Karl were beginning to think that there might be more efficient ways of operating with the increasing volume of work and current size of the team. They knew they couldn’t keep doing things the same way and expect different results.
They commissioned a business coach, who we’ll call Sally, to work with them on analysing the current situation and looking at ways to improve. As part of this remit, Sally interviewed each team member about their role, the things they thought were going well and the impact of Nat and Karl’s leadership.
The team members were clear about the expectation that their feedback was to be honest and having Sally there helped with that - it would have been much harder to give feedback directly to Nat or Karl for fear of hurting their feelings if it was negative.
When Sally had put together her report, she had a face to face with Nat and Karl. Although much of it was positive, there were several areas that clearly needed improving which they found really hard to hear at first. They were on the defensive and making excuses for everything, but soon realised that excuses don’t change the outcome. Sally was objective and firm, repeating key messages and giving examples to back up the feedback. Hardest to hear was that they were creating some of the problems themselves and needed to be more logical and less sentimental in their decision making. Sally’s professional approach helped to keep the feedback specific and constructive, and helped Nat and Karl to process it less emotionally.
“My attitude towards feedback is changing – I’m seeking hard feedback more now because I’m getting better at accepting other people’s interpretations of things. In terms of impact – it’s immeasurable really, it’s huge. We’re opening up to new ideas and the team is way more involved and engaged in shaping our direction. I’m excited and hopeful about our future now rather than feeling a bit of despair or being weighed down by it all. It’s helped me to be way more methodical in how I see and tackle problems and I’m seeking more and more feedback now I’m getting used to accepting it and can see the value in it.”
Nat Gunn
How to get it right more often
We are all involved in giving and receiving feedback, both formally and informally, in most aspects of our lives. It’s worth exploring the concept and giving yourself some time to develop some strategies for getting it right and avoiding the trauma of getting it wrong.
Check out our courses, which will help you to give feedback and receive feedback effectively to transform your team!
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