Which Feedback Style Suits Your Company?

Organisations have gone through many changes since the 60s. Nowadays, organisational structures have flattened, and communication strategies and methods have become more complicated.

Companies are trying to find the best way to review performance and provide feedback.

 

What We Know So Far About Feedback

Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman are thought leaders in organisational leadership.

They describe five common feedback characteristics. Let's take a closer look at them.

What we know about feedback.

1. Feedback carries negative baggage. It's difficult not to carry feedback around with us after hearing it. As time passes, the extra weight of feedback we didn't understand, agree with, or weren't sure what to do with can affect our job performance.

2. Most feedback is assumed to be negative. Why do many people hate receiving feedback? Could it be that the feedback feels like a crushing blow to them? If you've ever felt like feedback was a hammer pounding away at you, you can see why feedback is frequently perceived as negative and corrective.

3. Employees want to hear more from their managers. Most employees want feedback. They want it, seek it out in various ways, and thrive on it when it is abundant and helpfully provided to them.

4. The boss's feedback can elicit strong emotions. When a person in a position of power provides input, the message evokes emotions. The inherent power imbalance can activate defence and self-protecting mechanisms in even the most humble learners and feedback-seekers.

5. The boss is just as (if not more) uncomfortable.  According to Zenger and Folkman's research, managers have just as much trouble giving feedback to their employees as their employees do hearing it. That finding alone may explain why feedback-rich cultures are difficult to cultivate and sustain.

 

Feedback-Rich Culture Assumptions and Characteristics

Zenger and Folkman use their research findings to challenge some of our preconceived notions about feedback. For example, in an organisation, it is widely assumed that feedback must flow downward. 

But what if we challenge that assumption and consider feedback to be a bidirectional, if not multidirectional, process? What if leaders set a new example by routinely soliciting feedback on their own performance?

What if managers and employees both served as feedback providers and recipients, engaging in feedback exchanges with one another? 

According to Zenger and Folkman, when this is the approach is to feedback, the organisation will see:

• A higher volume of overall feedback due to the bidirectional "pull" and "ask" at work in the organisational setting.

• Increased receptivity to and implementation of feedback being exchanged.

• Leaders are recognised as role models because they frequently, routinely, and responsively solicit and respond to feedback.

• Feedback that focuses on assisting everyone in developing their strengths (less corrective and more growth-oriented).

• Employees with greater personal control over their performance contributions, improvement efforts, and outcomes feel more empowered due to feedback.

• Behaviour resembling "adults treating adults like adults" rather than "adults treating adults like children."

 

Why Pursue a Feedback-Rich Culture?

Why should we be concerned with changing organisational feedback practices? 

Zenger and Folkman's study examined 360-degree feedback data from over 100,000 leaders from various industries worldwide. They discovered a couple of significant correlations:

• When a leader was rated as highly effective at asking for feedback, they were also rated as effective at giving honest feedback in a helpful manner.

• When a leader was rated as highly effective at soliciting feedback, their overall effectiveness was also rated as high.

Leaders who solicit and provide honest, effective feedback in a constructive manner will influence the performance of others and overall organisational performance outcomes. They are regarded as some of the most effective leaders within their organisations.

Zenger and Folkman's research looks into feedback style differences as well. They investigate the extent to which managers prefer or avoid providing positive and negative feedback, as well as the impact those preferences have on the recipients of the feedback.

 

Why would well-meaning, high-performing managers in any company give negative feedback? 

According to Zenger and Folkman, some managers mistakenly believe that criticising is part of their job. Others mix up constructive and critical feedback, thinking that the primary way to help people improve performance is to provide negative feedback. Unfortunately, that strategy does not always work. 

As Abraham Maslow observed, everything appears to be a nail when all you have is a hammer. However, there are risks in providing primarily negative feedback. It can harm relationships, lower morale, reduce effort on the job, and trigger threat/danger responses.

Data from Zenger and Folkman reveals:

• Giving no feedback at all is thought to be more effective than mostly negative feedback.

• It is critical to provide balanced feedback.

• Leaders who err on the side of providing more positive feedback than negative feedback have a greater positive impact in their organisations.

Consider the proverb, "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Perhaps we need more honey than hammers to fuel effective feedback practices to achieve higher levels of talent effectiveness and strong performance results.

 

How to Create a Feedback-Rich Culture

Zenger and Folkman issued a few challenges to everyone involved in talent development:

• Learn about Zenger and Folkman's Feedback Styles survey. It is a brief 11-question survey that assesses feedback providers' preferences for providing positive and negative feedback.

• Create leaders who solicit feedback. One of the most powerful things professionals can do is train leaders and managers to model the practice of soliciting feedback from their superiors, peer leaders, and employees. Teach them to not only give but also ask for feedback regularly, and assist them in developing the skills of listening, hearing, being receptive, and responding appropriately.

• Teach your frontline employees to ask. Frontline workers are usually the largest group of employees in your company. If you teach them to request feedback from their superiors and peers, you will create a culture of feedback that will change how your organisation functions. Consider it a "pull-pull" test. If you want to create a feedback-rich environment, everyone at every organisational level must work together to make it happen all the time.

 

Begin promoting feedback skills that are fueled by honey rather than hammers. Employees will appreciate more frequent, helpful, and growth-oriented feedback, and your organisation's bottom line will also benefit. Finally, consider the question that prompted Zenger and Folkman's research: "What is one thing I could do to improve this?"

 

Source: ATD