“The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.”
-- Winston Churchill
Feedback happens all around us. Our bodies naturally send us messages when something is wrong. In nature we see feedback occur to balance the natural course of things, like a thunderstorm that comes when it’s extremely hot. In our jobs we constantly need feedback on our performance to improve our effectiveness. Yet, people tend to shy away from direct and honest communication. If you want to perform at your best – feedback matters.
People get better at what they do when individuals they work with give them timely, honest observations of their performance. In today’s changing world, you have to evaluate what’s working and what’s not, what’s staying the same and what’s changing. Feedback plays that role. When rightly done, it impacts the bottom-line, yet it is not happening fully in most organizations today.
David Bradford and Allen Cohen, authors of Power Up, describe leadership as a capacity for increasing the total power of each individual. While few would disagree that this is a lofty goal to aspire to, few leaders know how to make it happen. When you give a person an honest appraisal of their behavior, the purpose is to influence them to make a change. As a leader, whatever kind of feedback you give has an influence, positive or negative, which can work both from the top down and from the bottom up. In other words, power is increased through mutual influence with feedback allowing each person to impact the other.
For influence and feedback to take hold there are a couple conditions that need to be present:
Commitment to a vision or goal . If people are not on the same page, feedback cannot happen. When both parties are dedicated to achieving the same outcome, feedback is natural and part of the process of achieving the vision.
Openness and Trust. When openness and trust develop, both parties can be more responsive to feedback and influence can expand. As a leader and direct report get to know each other they feel safe in voicing their thoughts and feelings as well as discussing their goals, aspirations and concerns. Managers can feel confident that their feedback will be received and understood and staff can feel comfortable in communicating what’s on their mind.
Challenges and Myths:
Leaders often view feedback as something done once or twice a year during review time or when performance issues arise, usually after the problem has reared its ugly head. Workers frustrated by a problem finally speak out after months or years of silence. Communication about the quality of work, done only at select times, makes it impossible to improve. Feedback done only at select times often results in unspoken defensiveness or espoused statements of action with no change. We need a continuous loop of information to help us gauge how well we are doing. Imagine getting feedback from our bodies only once a year! We would not be able to function properly and diagnosis would be a much lengthier process.
Finding Time:
The challenge most people face is time. Most leaders have multiple demands on their time and the crucial conversations that need to occur don’t. Yet they pay a hidden price that may not be evident right away and the bottom line of that cost is performance. The key to feedback is having the conversations about the key issues. When you postpone or avoid an important discussion you are giving power to that unresolved issue. The only way around a problem is to face it directly with compassion and understanding.
Feedback is natural and we all need it regardless of where we are on the corporate ladder. What creates effective organizations is open dialogue and mutual influence that builds relationships. As Don Peters, former CEO of Ford Motor Company said “Results depend on Relationships” and relationships are developed through successful interpersonal exchanges. Let us not be afraid of feedback but embrace it.
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