Seeking feedback

Objective

Few of us, if any, actually go to work wanting to do a bad job – it would be perverse, given how much of our waking lives we devote to it. By the same token, if we are honest we also want to know how we are doing – what areas we are strong in, and what areas can be improved. We may be more reluctant – out of embarrassment or fear – to confront the benefits that such feedback provides, and systems often have to be put in place to ensure that such feedback actually occurs.

As a leader you should actively encourage and welcome feedback mechanisms as a powerful tool for improving your own performance. You should understand that feedback is more than annual or semi-annual performance appraisal. It is not just about what your line manager thinks of you in a hierarchical structure. Finally, you should appreciate that a thorough and ongoing approach to feedback is absolutely about improving you and not trying to catch you out.

Your challenge is to accept feedback as enhancing rather than debilitating – a support and not a threat to you as an individual.

Context

Any feedback structure or process should be viewed as part of a broader approach to people development (of which you are a part). It is fundamentally based on five human resource principles.

• Core competencies – having a clear view of what competencies (or capabilities) your organisation needs to deliver its strategic objectives. These are to be distinguished from those capabilities that can be outsourced and are to be reviewed as part of the annual strategic planning process.
• Organisation structure – getting your organisation structured so that your competencies are best aligned to your market needs. This is likely to be reviewed on an almost constant basis.
• Recruitment and retention – how you appoint and keep the people you need to maintain your core competency talent pool. This is delivered by constant attention to market salary and benefits standards, and through development opportunity planning.
• Talent management – a structured process by which an organisation ensures that its talent pool meets its organisational needs, that development opportunities are planned for and skills gaps identified.
• Career development – development planning for each individual, ensuring that they are challenged to reach their full potential.

The opportunity to get feedback from a range of sources (as I describe below) is part of an overall approach to making sure that the right people are in the right jobs performing the best they can.

Challenge

The biggest single obstacle to getting the best from constructive feedback will be yourself. The most likely barriers will be:

• fear – you don’t want to hear what others think about you;
• scepticism – while you accept that feedback has its place, you don’t really believe that it is likely to lead to any perceptible change in your or others’ behaviour or performance;
• arrogance – you don’t believe that you could benefit from feedback;
• narrowness of vision – you don’t recognise how wide the range of sources is from whom you might seek feedback;
• time – you rank feedback low in your list of priorities, and there is always something more important to do.

Best of all, you need humility to recognise that you can always improve, and that others can always provide insights into how you can achieve this. You also need the support of really excellent HR professionals who can help you through their commitment and processes.

Success

Achieving a successful ‘feedback loop’ – receiving feedback and acting on it – can be based on three sources.

• Normal corporate feedback processes:
  • regular 121s with your boss – ask to be told how they think you are doing and give areas where you can improve;
  • regular 121s with your direct reports – encourage them to feedback how you can enhance their performance through doing more of what you do well, and less of what you do badly;
  • annual performance appraisals – while these often have far more significance than they merit,¹ appraisals should provide an opportunity for the participants to stand back and take a medium- to long-term view of performance.
• Partners – it is easy forget that you interact with, and therefore your performance and effectiveness are judged by, a very wide range of people outside your employing organisation. These might include customers, suppliers, business partners (including in joint ventures [JVs]), your financial advisers, industry associations etc. Why not take the opportunity to ask them what they think?
• 360-degree processes – ‘360-degree feedback’ is becoming increasingly popular and is much favoured by people professionals.

Pitfalls

In the end, feedback only works in a constructive virtuous circle – feedback leading to improvement – when the feedback itself is appropriate and directed, and when it is acted on.

• Untimely feedback – it is unwise to put your team members on the spot by asking them to provide feedback about you and your performance if they are unprepared and not ready for it. The embarrassment and difficulty it may cause will outweigh any feedback benefits. It is probably wise to only ask for advice and feedback when the nature of the relationships in your team have developed to the extent that such feedback can be given without any feeling that their relationship with you as line manager is being compromised.
• Ignored feedback – there is clearly no point in asking for feedback if you do nothing about it! This will only compound whatever observations were being made in the feedback itself with the overwhelming perception that you are deaf to criticism and unwilling to change. In this case, it would be better not to ask for feedback at all.

The moral here is that feedback is deeply personal – not only for you but also for the colleagues giving it. Choosing to seek it is a major (positive) step – but you must choose your time carefully and be seen to act on it.

Leaders’ checklist

• First and foremost, recognise that feedback plays a vital role in the management, development and improvement of your performance.
• If you feel uncomfortable about receiving feedback, learn to talk with one of your people team – or someone more ‘independent’ – to get informal feedback.
• Try to take the opportunity of having 121s with your team members to identify ways you can learn and develop, but handle this sensitively – they may also feel intimidated about criticising you!
• Encourage the use of 360-degree processes, not simply for yourself but also for your team members – this will help to break down ‘feedback barriers’.