COSTA AND KELLICK’S CRITICAL FRIEND
Use this when you want to challenge or critique someone with good intent.
Arthur Costa and Bena Kellick describe a Critical Friend as a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides a different perspective on an issue facing someone and critiques their actions with good intent. They outline a process for the critical friend–individual interaction that can be depicted as:
The elements in the process can be summarised as:
Engagement: The individual outlines the problem and asks the critical friend for feedback.
Questioning: The critical friend asks questions in order to understand the root causes of the problem and to clarify the context in which the problem is occurring.
Desired outcomes: The individual sets the desired outcomes for the interaction, thus ensuring they are in control.
Feedback: The critical friend provides feedback on what seems to be significant about the problem. This feedback should be more than a cursory look at the problem and should provide an alternative viewpoint that helps address the problem.
Reflection: Both parties reflect on what was discussed.
Recording: The individual records their views on the points and suggestions raised. The critical friend records the advice given and makes a note of what follow-up action they need to take.
Costa and Kellick argue that the manager as a critical friend is a very powerful idea, perhaps because it contains an inherent tension within the term: Friends bringing a high degree of unconditional positive regard, whereas critics may be negative and intolerant of failure. They describe the ideal as a marriage of unconditional support and unconditional critique. In this respect, it is a less formal approach than both the coaching techniques covered in this book (see Section 4).
HOW TO USE IT
Here are some tips to help you become a good critical friend:
- Don’t allow your friendship with the individual to obscure the real issue that they are faced with. Too much stress on the friendship side of the role may compromise the need for a deep and critical exchange of views.
- Sympathising with their plight will get you nowhere and may even have a detrimental effect on coming up with a solution. The aim is to stimulate divergent thinking by introducing different views and fresh insights.
- Have a clear understanding of the boundaries that exist in the relationship and set clear objectives of who will do what and by when.
- Make sure that you review progress on the objectives at regular intervals. Provide honest and critical feedback to the individual and be willing to accept honest and critical feedback from them.
- Reflect on the nature and appropriateness of the relationship and ask whether this needs revising.
The critical friend model is a professional undertaking based on mutual regard and a willingness to question and challenge. If you feel that, as the individual’s manager, you can’t comply with this then go for a more conventional approach.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- How certain am I that there is a clear distinction between my role as their manager and that of their critical friend?
- Am I giving and eliciting feedback in an honest and constructive manner?