Providing feedback involves making a judgment about someone’s theories, problem solutions, designs, proposals, or responses to many other requests. Much of today’s business literature suggests that judgment be avoided. I suggest that the word management is synonymous with judgment. Managers make judgments based on partial facts, so the ability to make judgments or reach some logical conclusion must become a competency. There are no algorithms that deal with making an assessment and then making a qualified judgment related to some activity. Developing a scale from 1 to 10 and taking an average doesn’t work. As human beings we’re more complicated.
Feedback without making a judgment provides no value. Keep in mind that we’re discussing feedback that takes place every day in every encounter. Feedback can be either positive or negative. It’s very easy to provide positive feedback. When all interactions are positive, you as manager will look forward to working with that employee. It’s a pleasure to review the work of an employee who has all of the details under control. It’s a pleasure to work with the employee who is already contemplating subsequent steps in the process. If an employee meets or exceeds expectations, if a project team exceeds expectations, and if the department exceeds expectations, then the leader can bask in this performance.
But what happens when the individual, the project team, or the department does not meet expectations? Is this a time to provide negative feedback? Most HR people suggest that negative feedback should be avoided and is also counterproductive. I would suggest just the opposite. Negative feedback can be provided diplomatically. If it cannot, then there are other problems that may need to be resolved. Perhaps you need to review some of your past practices in dealing with people. Some managers even develop a habit of congratulating employees even when the work effort fails, and regardless of the reasons for the failure. Perhaps these managers were raised in an environment where failure was considered as a success. Perhaps as children they played on teams where a team that was winning overwhelmingly could not add any more points to its total even if they were entitled to them. Such actions do not build character and such behavior is unacceptable when working with adults.
You cannot put a positive spin on performance that has not met the requirements. You can’t fail the person or team based on the results and then give either or both an "A" for effort. We’re in the real world. We are no longer in elementary school. You do a great injustice to employees when you do not provide effective feedback. I recall the comments from a supervisor who became very frustrated every time his manager came for a project review. The project was late, there were problems that required resolution, but the manager was praising the team for the fine job they were doing. Such actions on the part of the manager only exacerbate an existing problem.
I suggest that as a manager you use the following guideline: If you or your team goofed, admit it and learn something from the experience. Do you want your manager to tell you that your team did a great job when you personally know that your team didn’t meet expectations and you didn’t meet your personal expectations? You accepted those expectations at the time but for any number of reasons you just didn’t perform. So why try to sugar coat a lack of success? Why not admit it and just say we blew it; we’ll do better next time.
How negative feedback is presented is important; it cannot become personal, although it is often difficult to refrain from becoming personal if the failure occurred because of a lack of diligence. It’s difficult to focus solely on performance when someone fails to perform because of a poor attitude or laziness. However, leaders need to avoid becoming personal in providing feedback. It sends the wrong message not only to the individual but also to the group. What you said to the nonperformer will eventually reach the members of the group and a personal attack only diminishes you as the leader. If you as the manager lose your self-control, you’ve lost the argument.
A change in performance from acceptable to not acceptable occurs over some period of time. As managers, our responsibility is to recognize any decrease in performance and take the necessary action. The change may have taken place for many different reasons; health and family problems, work assignments, or any number of other issues may be affecting the employee. When these changes are recognized, dealt with, and resolved before they become major obstacles to performance, a great deal of anxiety can be eliminated. A quick response also requires much less effort on your part as the manager. It’s much easier to put out a small fire than one that has been allowed to spread.
Feedback is also very important because we sit in meetings and communicate not only verbally but also with our whole physical being. We convey agreement, frustration, disbelief, boredom, and inattention by adjusting our physical appearance in some way: a smile or nod of the head, a lifted eyebrow, twirling or tapping that pen or pencil, and paying more attention to the laptop than the presenter. These actions provide feedback to those engaged in the dialogue. In our one-on-one contacts we convey similar impressions of agreement, disagreement, acceptance, or rejection.
While feedback plays an important role in moving the organization forward, it’s basically a study in history. It tells us what happened and allows us to find ways for providing some form of corrective action. The feedback loops required for managing performance are basically the same as those required for controlling chemical and petroleum processes. The many variables in a chemical process are automatically controlled. However, those processes also use what is known as feedforward.
What do we mean by feedforward? Feedforward allows us to anticipate the future corrective action based on current performance. As an example, the design of any chemical processing plant uses many control loops with feedback to develop a quality product. Modern process control systems also employ feedforward capabilities to anticipate possible process changes. The emphasis is on anticipation. The feedforward loops anticipate the changes that may have to be introduced because of some predicted error in the system that has escalated over time. That process may be functioning just within specification limits but certain minor changes are occurring that will require modifying other settings if the process is to continue meeting requirements. Basically, feedforward looks to the future.
The following example will clarify the use of feedforward in relation to resolving people issues. You have a review with Tony, one of your staff, regarding some work he is currently doing. Tony’s work has really not met the requirements during the past months. As a manager you sit down with Tony and begin discussing his performance. Tony’s performance has been well below what you consider an acceptable level. There really isn’t anything that Tony has done that’s worthy of any kind of praise. If you show your immediate dissatisfaction with Tony’s performance, Tony will probably become defensive, you will try to defend your position, and the discussion will probably not yield a resolution of the situation. So the better approach may be to look to the future than to the past. Find some kind of corrective action to bring Tony back on track.
First you need to look at your responses to Tony over the period under consideration and think how you and Tony managed to get into this unfavorable situation. You need to think about some possible solutions before you confront Tony, and you need to get Tony involved in finding the solution. What do you really know about Tony? How much contact have you had with him during the past few months? Is Tony a person who needs close supervision and that supervision was not provided? What knowledge, skills, and attitudes does Tony need to improve in order to meet his objectives? Responses to these questions are solely for your preparation for the discussion. You won’t directly confront Tony with them.
If you take the feedforward approach you won’t begin by telling Tony about all of the things he lacks to be an effective contributor to the group. Feedforward is about the future. By structuring Tony’s workload within his competencies and setting some stretch targets within those competencies you and Tony can begin a new relationship. Tony may or may not accept the challenge. If he accepts the challenge he is probably on the way to becoming a more productive employee. If he resists your alternatives are limited. Termination after sufficient documentation may be necessary. You do need to understand that you have an investment in Tony and should do everything possible to make him a productive employee.