Many managers are not very skilled at giving effective performance feedback, and often either seek to avoid giving any feedback, or save it all up to be given in some performance feedback bubble (often called an annual/quarterly review).
Discussing our F3 model in previous blog posts (what is performance management? 1, 2 and 3) we have considered the importance of focus and performance metrics. In many businesses the performance data is readily available, but confusion still exists due to the poor performance feedback skills of managers.
In reality, managers are not able to avoid giving feedback. Many managers believe they are in some sort of feedback vacuum, only giving their people feedback when they choose to. They are wrong, and here’s why. What is feedback?
Feedback is any communication, verbal or non-verbal, which offers a person some information about how he or she affects situations or others.
In other words, you are constantly giving and receiving feedback and it is impossible not to. The people around you are receiving that feedback and they are interpreting what it means – and that’s the difficult bit. It is highly unlikely that their interpretation will be the same as the message you really want them to receive.
Who is in control of your feedback messages?
This has two very important implications for managers and individuals alike, who either seek to avoid giving feedback or fall back on a poor ineffective strategy. It also has a significant impact on performance.
- In the absence of any good quality feedback others will ‘make up’ what they believe you think/intend. It is not in any way malicious, it is simply inconceivable to the human mind that a communication vacuum exists, so in the absence of quality information we make it up in order to make sense of the things happening around us and the intentions of others. For some reason, many people seem to default to the doomsday or conspiracy scenario rather than the – I’m sure they were trying to help me’ scenario.
- Many managers find giving feedback difficult, especially if it is about poor or under performance. Instead of giving clear, explicit feedback, they try to soften the risks (to themselves) by throwing out hints and hoping that the other person gets it. They think it gives them a get out clause if someone gets upset, as they can always fall back on ‘that’s not what I meant’. Unfortunately, it means we are back to the interpretation being left to the feedback receiver, and we know the problems with that approach.
Providing high quality performance feedback is an essential skill for any manager; in fact it’s your day job.
How good are the performance feedback skills of your managers?
For ideas on how you can strengthen these skills for your managers:
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