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Bite-Sized Training™
Giving Feedback
Giving Feedback
Bite-Sized Training
This e-book is published by Mind Tools Ltd.
Copyright © Mind Tools Ltd 2007-2013. All rights reserved.
Version 2.0.
This e-book is protected by international copyright law.
You may use it only if you are a member of the Mind
Tools Club™. If you have any queries, please contact us at
members.helpdesk@mindtools.com.
Cover image © iStockphoto/ermingut.
Contents
1.
Introduction
1
2.
Evaluating the Situation
2
3.
Identifying Solutions and Planning Your Feedback
6
4.
Conducting the Session
9
5.
Closing the Session
14
6.
Key Learning Points
15
7.
Answers for the Observation/Inference Exercise
16
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
iii
1. Introduction
G
iving feedback is one of the most important things you can do to help
members of your team. When you make a conscious choice to give and
receive regular feedback, you demonstrate a commitment to personal
development, and you take steps to ensure that your workplace is a
productive and harmonious place to work in.
So, why do many of us struggle so much with giving feedback?
In particular, giving negative feedback can seem daunting. How can you tell
someone that they are doing something wrong, and still preserve a good
relationship with them?
The key is to be objective, and to get them to think about their own goals and
solutions, without having to “tell” them what to do.
To accomplish this, you need to be well prepared, and you need to have a solid
understanding of the issue that you want to discuss. When you do this, you know
the direction that the discussion needs to go, you can ask the right questions, and
you can give the right support.
Good planning, therefore, is critical to giving effective feedback. You also have to
give the other person a sense of ownership of the process.
This Bite-Sized Training™ session is designed to give you the tools you need to
give great feedback. In just one hour, we’ll show you how to:
•
•
•
Evaluate people’s performance objectively.
Come up with potential solutions that address poor performance.
Conduct a feedback discussion that gets maximum buy-in from the
other person.
By the end of the session, you’ll know how to provide effective feedback. When
you develop your skills in this area, you’ll have much better work relationships, and
you’ll have a happier and more productive team.
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
1
2. Evaluating the Situation
T
•
•
he feedback process should have four distinct stages:
• Evaluating – assessing the situation.
• Planning the feedback – identifying solutions, and planning what to
say and why.
Discussing – sitting down to discuss the issue.
Closing – creating your action plan for improvement.
We’ll begin by looking at the first stage – evaluating the problem.
When you provide feedback, you need to be clear about what you want to
evaluate. Feedback that leads to positive change should be honest and direct: you
can’t generalize or be vague, and you need to back up any comments you make
with hard facts.
So, you need to spend sufficient time upfront thinking about what you’re going to
say, and preparing for your interaction with the other person. To do this, it helps if
you use a performance analysis form like the one on pages 4 and 5.
Before you start filling out this form, you need to know how to articulate your
assessment of someone, so that your feedback is effective, and so that it can
influence change powerfully. You can do this with feedback statements.
Effective Feedback Statements
Effective feedback statements should have two key qualities:
1. They Should be Specific
Describe the behavior or performance, and support your statements with specific
examples of the person’s attitude or results.
Example A:
A vague statement: “quality is poor.”
A specific statement: “the employee consistently produces work with a high
failure rate, he fails to fill in quality reports, and he does not monitor himself
for improvement.”
Example B:
A vague statement: “resists change.”
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
2
A specific statement: “the employee is not using new work-flow processes
consistently, she is not entering data accurately, and she shows little initiative in
coming up with solutions to common problems.”
2. They Should be Observed
Only provide feedback on behaviors or results that you’ve observed first hand,
and don’t mention hearsay or third party comments. This makes it much easier
for you to provide clear and specific feedback, and it means that you have all the
information you need to defend what you say.
When you gather your observations, you need to be aware of the difference
between observation and inference. Keep your comments factual, and avoid
attributing motives to people’s behavior.
So, what’s the difference between observation and inference?
•
•
An observation is something that you have witnessed.
An inference is an interpretation of something you have witnessed.
Action:
Try the activity below, and determine if the statement is an observation or an
inference. The answers are given on page 16.
Statement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Observation or Inference
Martha didn’t look well. She told me she hadn’t slept
much the night before because her child was sick.
Sarah asked for two hours to complete her summary
report, but she did the work in one when I said how
important it was to get it done quickly.
Samantha was in bad shape today. There was a party last
night at the local bar; she’s probably hungover!
Fred seemed to be very anxious and nervous today.
Henry was angry about the cost overruns because he
thought they made him look like an incompetent manager.
Andrea is often quite slow to deliver, but she can perform
when she puts her mind to it. She wanted to go home
early today, so she finished her work in 45 minutes, when
it usually takes her two hours.
Todd agreed that his performance had been slipping,
and we reached an agreement that he would improve
over the coming weeks.
Juan felt that Greg was putting unreasonable demands
on him, and that he didn’t care about his stress levels or
his feelings.
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
3
Performance Analysis
Now that you know how to write effective feedback statements, it’s time to apply
those skills to your evaluation of a person’s performance or behavior.
Action:
Think about an employee, colleague, or other relevant person that you need
to give feedback to, and fill out the questionnaire below. Remember to use
specific and observable statements when answering.
Performance Analysis Form
Evaluation of:
Date:
Task/function to be analyzed:
What is the performance standard or expectation?
Is the person aware of this standard or expectation? How do you know?
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
4
What outcomes or conditions cause you to believe a problem exists?
What specific behavior(s) are indicative of the problem?
How often does the problematic behavior occur? Or how long has it been going on?
Does the person realize that the problem exists? How do you know?
How will your feedback/involvement help rectify the situation?
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
5
3. Identifying Solutions and
Planning Your Feedback
B
y this stage, you should have made specific observations, and you should
have a clear picture of what the problem is. In the next step, you think
about potential solutions: it’s not useful to give feedback that only points
out the negatives, or that discusses your evaluation and observations. You
should have an improvement plan in mind when you talk to the person.
For now, you need to concentrate on identifying possible causes and coming up
with possible solutions. A good framework to use here is the ACHIEVE model:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ability.
Clarity and confidence.
Help and support.
Incentive and motivation.
Evaluation.
Validity.
Environment.
Each of these seven areas is a potential root cause of the problem. To use the
model, you evaluate how each factor affects the person’s performance, and then
come up with a solution.
Action:
Look over the problem you’ve identified, and then review the “Potential
Causes” and “Potential Solutions” in the table below. For the causes that best fit
the problem, note down actions that you might take in the right-hand column.
Potential Causes
Potential Solutions
Actions
Ability – Does the person have
Provide education, training,
the required knowledge, skills,
coaching, job reassignment, and
experience, aptitude, training, and job support.
education to be successful?
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
6
Potential Causes
Potential Solutions
Clarity and confidence – Does
the person understand the job
or task? Does he know what is
expected, and what performance
indicators will be used? Are the
targets and priorities known?
Review goals, objectives,
and standards. Discuss and
review policies. Revise job
descriptions, and create written
agreements and objectives for
meeting expectations.
Help and Support – are there
sufficient resources, materials,
space, training, time, money,
and people available to meet the
standards and expectations?
Make a plan to provide the
resources required. These may
be physical resources, or they
could be support, training, and
coaching.
Incentive and motivation –
Do you know what motivates
the person? Are the rewards
provided appropriate? Are the
correct behaviors and outcomes
being reinforced?
Make a plan to understand
what motivates the person.
Create a feedback and reward
system that positively reinforces
desired behavior and eliminates
undesirable consequences.
Evaluation – Is the person given
input on their performance
on a regular basis? Does she
understand how, when, and why
she is evaluated?
Plan regular formal and informal
feedback. Co-create criteria for
success, and decide on methods
for measuring it.
Validity – Is what you are asking
the person to do, or expecting of
him/her, valid and reasonable? Is
the person being treated fairly and
equally? Is the evaluation process
objective and results-oriented,
rather than subjective?
Create solid policies and
performance criteria. Provide
explanations and discuss
evaluation processes. Audit your
practices for fairness and equality.
Environment – Are there parts
of the internal environment (job
design, management style, reward
system) that are incongruent
with success?
Where possible, discuss and make
plans to adjust environmental
factors that are within your
control. When outside of your
control, plan and discuss
how to cope. Consider these
factors when developing
performance standards.
What external conditions
(market conditions, competition,
government standards) are
influencing performance?
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
Actions
7
Action:
Based on your analysis, think about the solutions that you may be prepared to
offer, depending on what your discussions reveal. Use this as an opportunity
to think through what you are – and are not – prepared to do. Record these on
the table on the next page.
Tip:
Be prepared to abandon these solutions if the facts don’t support your initial
assumptions, once you start discussing them. It’s possible that the problem
could be caused by something completely different.
Possible Solutions
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
8
4. Conducting the Session
B
y now, you have identified the problem, and you’ve come up with some possible
strategies for improvement. Now you need to turn your attention to how you will
present this information to the other person, and how you will attempt to reach a
solution with them.
The GROW Model is a useful tool that you can use to motivate people to deliver the
change you want. This classic coaching method achieves maximum buy-in, because it
helps the person to decide for himself what he needs to do to improve. GROW Stands for:
•
•
•
•
Goal.
Reality.
Options.
Will.
Tip 1:
We will follow the GROW Model loosely here, because, in feedback situations, there’s a
possible element of confrontation that isn’t present in normal coaching situations. Also,
you can’t be 100 percent sure of your analysis of the situation until later in the process.
Tip 2:
If you’d like to read more about the GROW model, see this article.
Establishing the Goal
You’ve identified the problem, and you’ve recorded the evidence that supports your analysis of
the problem. You’ve also identified the standard that you want the person to achieve.
Before you start the discussion, you need to organize this information so that you can
clearly state the problem in the feedback meeting, and quote evidence in such a way that
it leaves no “wriggle room.”
Draft this using “I” statements, and remember to include observations, not inferences.
Action:
Using the Feedback Planning Form at the end of this section on pages 12 and
13, write out your problem statement, and note any observations that support
your assessment of the situation.
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
9
Now it’s time to open the discussion, and establish the goal.
Here, you state the problem, you list the evidence that supports this, and you then
say what you want the person to achieve (the goal of the session).
Tip:
Avoid opening by discussing what the other person perceives the problem
to be. In opening the feedback session, you should be very clear about the
issues. The discussion comes after this.
Examining Reality
The next step in the GROW process is to discuss how the person perceives the
current situation. It’s impossible to get to a stated end point, or a goal, without
solidly marking the starting point.
For instance, perhaps he doesn’t appreciate the importance of the behavior you’re
looking for. Perhaps he’s distracted by other activities. Perhaps your analysis of
potential causes is accurate. Or perhaps something else really significant is going
on (often in his personal life) that you’re just not aware of.
To find out about this, use questions that address the what, who, how, and when
aspects of the situation and the outcome. For example, you could ask:
•
•
•
What is happening?
What is the outcome?
Who else is involved?
Try to come to an agreed analysis of what’s going wrong in the current situation,
so that you both fully understand the current position. Make a note of this so that
you can refer back to it.
Action:
Before the session, make a list of questions on the Feedback Planning Form
on pages 12 and 13. You want to help the other person uncover the essence of
the problem for him or herself.
Tip:
As part of this discussion the other person may lay some of the blame for poor
performance with you. Our articles on How to Handle Criticism with good grace
and Dealing with Unfair Criticism will help you deal with this appropriately.
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
10
Exploring Options
After exploring the current reality, you then move onto looking at possible solutions.
Here again, from your analysis of possible solutions identified earlier, you already
have a good idea of what needs to be done. However, from the answers and
insights revealed by the other person, some of these solutions might need to be
adjusted, or scrapped altogether.
Tip:
It’s very important that you do your own analysis and problem-solving first.
If you go into the session without a clear idea of what is really happening
and what you can do about it, the discussion can get off track very easily. You
might end up with a solution that is too employee-centered, and that fails to
consider the organizational and resource constraints that are important to
any workable solution.
This portion of the feedback session is designed to get you both thinking along
the same lines. From here, you can develop solutions that meet both of your
needs. You have already identified what you think needs to be done; now the
other person identifies his ideas, and you come up with a well-rounded course of
action that meets everyone’s needs.
Try to get the other person to identify as many options as possible – this will help
to get his buy-in – and let them do most of the talking. When he offers ideas and
suggestions that you don’t accept, explain why. When he makes suggestions that
are similar to yours, try to build on these ideas and create a great combined solution.
To facilitate this discussion, ask questions that get the person thinking about
different possibilities and options. You should also encourage him to come up with
ideas that try to break free of any pre-established barriers or constraints. Some
questions to consider include:
•
•
•
•
•
What have you tried?
What else could you do?
Why haven’t you tried it?
If this constraint were removed, what would be possible?
What are the potential risks involved?
Action:
Take some time to brainstorm good questions that will encourage the other
person to explore possible solutions. Record these questions in the Feedback
Planning Form on pages 13 and 14.
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
11
Establishing Will
The final step in the GROW Model is to gain commitment from the other person.
You’ll only achieve positive, lasting change with a firm commitment to action.
After all, when you give feedback, your job is to make sure that the person will act
on the information you’ve given, so that the situation is fully resolved.
Again, good questions will help you to establish the person’s motivation to
improve. Examples include:
•
•
•
What will you do now?
When do you see yourself starting this?
How will this help you?
Action:
Brainstorm a few motivation-building questions that you can ask the person,
and record them on the Feedback Planning Form below.
Feedback Planning Form
Feedback for:
Problem Statement:
Observations:
Goal Statement Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
12
Uncovering Reality Questions:
1.
5.
2.
6.
3.
7.
4.
8.
Coaching Questions for Discovering Solutions:
1.
5.
2.
6.
3.
7.
4.
8.
Motivation Building Questions:
1.
4.
2.
5.
3.
6.
Positives for Ending the Discussion:
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
13
5. Closing the Session
T
he final part of giving feedback that you need to prepare for is the close.
This is where you establish an action plan for change.
You know what you want to happen. The other person knows what he
needs to do, and has expressed a will to do it. Now you need to develop a
solid action plan to address the problem. You’ll identify the steps that you’ll both
take, and you’ll schedule the checkpoints where you’ll monitor progress.
After you have come to an agreement, try to end the feedback session on a
positive note, and with an expression of support. However, make sure that you
don’t leave the person thinking that everything’s OK, and that he doesn’t need to
try too hard to make the changes you’ve agreed to.
Giving Feedback Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
14
6. Key Points
T
he ability to give effective feedback is a necessary skill in almost all
management jobs.
The key to a successful interaction is to prepare for the conversation in
advance. When you give feedback on the fly, you will likely find that your
comments won’t be objective enough, and you might find that you veer off course
and allow the discussion to focus on unrelated and unproductive issues. You can
also find that the situation spirals out of control, damaging your relationship with
the other person.
A sure-fire way to reach an agreement is to follow an organized approach that
uses objective information to come …
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