Manager's Briefcase
Giving and Receiving Feedback - Chapter 1
Note from Martha Kilbourn: Last issue we discussed ways to give appropriate feedback to your new employee, Elizabeth Sharp, who was having some problems with last-minute-itis. Since then, the Western Region had a wonderful conference call with Pam Lizardi from Arizona who teaches a course on Giving and Receiving Feedback for the Maricopa County Court. Pam walked us through the course and the techniques she uses to teach it. I asked Pam if we could use her materials in NASJE News and she graciously agreed. I think you will find the following materials particularly helpful in learning the techniques of giving and receiving feedback. Thank you, Pam!
Editor’s note: This issue is the first of eight installments of Pam’s course materials. One chapter will be posted each month here on the website. If you need future installments sooner than that, email me at schopicp@sconet.state.oh.us to request the course sooner. Feel free to contact Pam Lizardi directly at PLizardi@courthr.maricopa.gov. Also, please be sure to let us know what you think of these materials and our including them on the website in monthly installments. A JERITT prompt will go out to you all each time an installment is posted.
The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback
Only
those companies with the most creative and motivated people will sustain
leadership for the long haul. What separates Maricopa County from every
other county is the answer to one question: Can we execute? Through the
years we’ve shown the answer is a
resounding yes. How do we sustain the motivation, bias for action and
innovation, and adaptability to change that define our culture and
underpin all of our success?
Development: One of the central issues facing our county—and most organizations—is how to release even more of our brainpower and know-how. We believe there’s an enormous reservoir of untapped potential within Maricopa County that can be channeled more productively. That’s why Maricopa County is committed to developing an organization that is learning and continually expanding its capacity to create its future. On one level that means helping teammates build the new skills and information needed to meet the constantly changing requirements of our industry. On another level it means each teammate taking responsibility for managing his or her career and for increasing their value to the customer (internal and external) they serve. The more you know the more you are worth, not only to the organization, but to yourself, and those around you.
Introduction
Good communication tops most people’s lists of important workplace
skills. Although business offices, courts, probation offices, adjudicators
and jury’s are relying more and more on complex electronic equipment,
not all of the information employees need is found online and in databases.
Effective person-to-person communication is more important than ever
as teams “form and storm,” management becomes more egalitarian,
and employees learn to work cross-functionally. One of the most important
person-to-person communication skills is the ability to give and receive
feedback effectively. It is also one of the most challenging. No amount
of sophisticated technology can diminish the anxiety supervisors, team
leaders, and team members can feel when faced with a feedback session.
Perhaps you have experienced this sense of apprehension, and that’s
why you’re taking this class.
The good news is that feedback doesn’t have to be painful. By learning the proven techniques presented here, you can develop your feedback skills. If you provide feedback to others—coworkers, direct reports, or your manager—this class will help you to present your ideas more effectively. It will also help you to be a better receiver of feedback, even feedback that is presented awkwardly. With just a little practice, you’ll be able to turn feedback sessions into tools that can help you and your coworkers improve your job performance and meet important goals. Good luck!
How Well Do I Give Feedback?
Before we get started, this self-assessment will help you measure your
current skills in giving feedback. For each statement, check “rarely,” “sometimes,” or “often” to
indicate how consistently you use the described behavior in the workplace.
| RARELY | SOMETIMES | OFTEN | |
| 1. I pick an appropriate time and place to give feedback. | |||
| 2. I keep my emotions in check, remaining calm and keeping my voice even. |
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| 3. I provide specific, detailed information about the teammate’s behavior or performance. |
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| 4. I explain the impact the teammate’s actions are having on the team or organization. | |||
| 5. I really listen to the responses of those receiving my feedback. | |||
| 6. I clarify my expectations if there is any confusion about the behavior in question. | |||
| 7. I remember to thank and encourage the receivers of my feedback. | |||
| 8. I provide input as needed in developing an action plan for meeting behavioral or performance goals. | |||
| 9. I focus on the steps of the feedback process to keep the dialogue on track. | |||
| 10. I try to understand feedback from the other person’s point of view and preferred communication style. |
How Well Do I Receive
Feedback?
Of course, giving feedback is only half of the story.
Take a moment now and assess your skills as a feedback recipient.
| RARELY | SOMETIMES | OFTEN | |
| 1. I truly listen to what feedback givers are saying. | |||
| 2. I keep feedback in perspective and don’t overreact. | |||
| 3. I try to learn from all feedback, even if it’s poorly given. | |||
| 4. I am willing to admit to learn from questions about my performance or behavior at work. | |||
| 5. Rather than avoiding feedback, I attempt to turn every feedback session into a useful encounter. | |||
| 6. I accept redirection and reinforcement rather than denying them. |
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| 7. I accept responsibility for my role in achieving individual, team, and organizational goals. |
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| 8. I accept responsibility for searching for solutions to performance and behavioral problems that threaten goals. | |||
| 9. I accept responsibility for keeping my emotions in check during feedback discussions. | |||
| 10. I am committed to listening and learning in all feedback situations. |
How Did You Score?
How did you score on the two self-assessments? If you answered most of
the questions with “often”, your skills for giving useful
feedback and receiving feedback effectively are well developed. If
you answered a number of questions with “rarely” or “sometimes”,
your feedback skills could probably use further development.
Chapter One - The Power of Feedback
Objectives
• Define feedback.
• Recognize ineffective types of feedback.
• Recognize the characteristics of effective feedback.
• Define redirection and reinforcement, two types of feedback that are
especially effective in the workplace.
What Is Feedback?
- Example 1: A manager hands in a report to her area
director and waits for a month without receiving a reaction. The manager
wonders, “What
did I do wrong?”
- Example 2: A supervisor becomes upset at a secretary
who consistently makes typing errors. “Don’t you know anything
about the English language?” he yells. “It’s amazing
you ever finished high school!” The manager slams a recently
typed memo on the secretary’s
desk and stalks off; the specific typing errors are never discussed.
- Example 3: An employee receives praise from a supervisor during an annual evaluation. “You’re doing a great job,” she’s told. “Keep up the good work.” As the employee leaves the supervisor’s office, she wonders, “What exactly am I doing well? I want to keep doing it, but I’m not sure what ‘it’ is.”
Whenever we respond to another person, we are giving that person feedback. We may be reacting to any number of things:
- The way a person looks
- His or her actions
- Something he or she said
- Or a combination of factors
Similarly, our feedback may take many forms. We may state our reactions verbally, through speaking or writing, or we may react nonverbally, letting our body language and facial expressions speak for us. Though there are many types of feedback, not all feedback is useful. Consider our three examples.
In the first example above, the area director has responded to the manager with silence. Silence is actually one of the most common forms of feedback in the courts. How many times have you heard a manager say, “You won’t hear from me unless there’s a problem”? But silence can be misinterpreted. In this case, the manager has interpreted silence as criticism, but is that what the area director really means? The area director may just have thought she was too busy to respond, yet her silence has sent a message that is unintentionally negative.
In the second example, silence certainly wasn’t a problem for the manager. That manager chose to give feedback in the form of criticism, attacking the secretary’s personal qualities rather than focusing on the typing errors. The manager may have vented some emotion by yelling at the secretary, but the secretary still has no idea what the errors are and what should be done about them. The manager’s criticism has only created distrust and hostility, which will make it even more difficult to discuss the actual problem.
The supervisor in our third example offered praise, certainly a more pleasant form of feedback than the first two. The employee in the third example is undoubtedly happy to learn that her boss likes her work, but unless she asks for more specific details regarding what actions she should continue, the praise is of little long-term value.
As you can see, we are constantly responding to the actions of others, sometimes even without meaning to—as the old cliché says, “You cannot not communicate.” How can we ensure that our responses provide people with useful feedback? Our first step is to determine what we want our feedback to accomplish.
| Take a Moment |
| Did our opening examples remind you of a similar situation you may have encountered? Describe the situation. |
| Do you thing the situation you experienced was handled well? How might it have been handled better? |
How Do We Give Feedback in the Workplace?
In the workplace, our feedback takes on special meaning. In this class,
we will define workplace feedback as information we provide fellow
teammates about their actions in order to help them meet individual,
group, and organizational goals. In the workplace, there are two types
of actions about which we generally provide feedback: job performance
and work-related behavior.
- Job performance involves competency—whether
or not a teammate is proficiently performing specific tasks that
have been assigned.
- Work-related behavior involves the way in which a teammate performs his or her tasks—whether he or she speaks politely to customers, for example, and works cooperatively with other team members.
Notice that our definition of workplace feedback is fairly specific. When we give workplace feedback, we are not commenting on our coworkers’ personalities or private lives, nor are we dwelling on past errors in order to punish them. Instead, we respond to those factors that affect our feedback recipient’s work or the work of others so that our recipient can plan for the future.
What is the best way to give workplace feedback? As we have seen, not all types of information result in effective feedback. The feedback given in our first three examples produced a variety of results. Silence allowed the division manager to create her own interpretation of the area supervisor’s reaction, which may or may not have been correct. Criticism created harsh feelings between the secretary and the manager. Praise created positive feelings during the evaluation but accomplished nothing more. What could more effective feedback have done?
Redirection and Reinforcement
Think for a moment about
our last two examples. Did the manager really want to insult the secretary?
No, the criticism was meant to redirect the secretary’s job performance to eliminate the typing errors—it
just came out badly. And what was the intention of the supervisor in
the second example? To reinforce the positive actions so that they would
be repeated and developed.
These two types of feedback—redirection and reinforcement—are especially effective in the workplace.
Redirection—identifies job-related behaviors and performance that do not contribute to individual, group, and organizational goals and helps the employee develop alternative strategies.
Reinforcement—identifies job-related behaviors and performance that contribute to individual, group, and organizational goals and encourages the employee to repeat and develop them.
Redirection and reinforcement are really two halves of the same coin—they work together to provide all members of an organization with the information they need to improve their job performance and work up to their full potential. When feedback takes the form of redirection and reinforcement, it has a number of useful characteristics:
- It is focused on acts, not attitude.
- It is directed toward the future.
- It is goal oriented.
- It is multidirectional.
- It is supportive.
- It is continual..
Useful workplace feedback focuses on acts rather than a teammate’s attitude or personal characteristics—it responds to specific actions that are done in the process of performing one’s job. Attacking someone’s talent and abilities, educational background, physical attributes, or ethnic background is not useful feedback and, in extreme cases, could leave your organization subject to legal action.
Sometimes we may think that we are giving a person feedback about his or her actions when, in fact, we are commenting on attitude, which is not a useful type of feedback. It does little good to accuse a teammate of being “unenthusiastic” or “unprofessional”—we have no way of knowing how that person truly feels, nor is it really our business. Instead, we should focus on what we can see—the acts that we hope to redirect or reinforce. Rather than commenting on a teammate’s lack of professionalism, for example, we redirect job performance issues, like typing errors, and behavioral problems that affect job performance, like lateness.
| Take a Moment |
| Think of a situation in which you received redirection that was not focused on acts (as in the secretarial example at the beginning of this chapter). Describe the criticism you received. How did the other person approach you? What did he or she say? |
| How did you respond to this criticism? Were there aspects of your work that could have been improved? How could your critic have changed his or her message so that you could have benefited from the advice by redirecting your efforts? |
Useful Feedback Is Directed Toward the
Future
The purpose of feedback is not to dwell on the past—it is to plan
for the future. Though feedback begins with a consideration of past and
current behaviors and job performance, it certainly doesn’t end
there. Useful feedback uses past actions as a springboard to help the
feedback recipient develop effective plans for future actions.
Useful Feedback Is Goal Oriented
Everyone within your organization shares common goals that relate to
your organization’s mission, vision, and strategies for success.
Members of your team or department share certain goals as well. Similarly,
everyone in your organization has individual goals that will help him
or her contribute to the court’s goals.
We might think of individual goals as paths all leading to the completion of organizational goals. As each of us walks along our path, we believe that we are moving in the right direction. But there may be obstacles ahead that we can’t see, or perhaps our path is interfering with someone else’s. The only way we will ever know these things is if people from other vantage points tell us. When we look at feedback this way, it becomes as important a work tool as a computer or a calculator.
| Take a Moment |
| Think of an instance when a colleague or a supervisor provided feedback from his or her vantage point that helped get you back on track toward meeting an important goal. Describe the instance. What was the goal and how did the feedback help you? |
Useful Feedback Is Multidirectional
Many of us might think of feedback as hierarchical in nature: a manager
or supervisor sends feedback downward to a teammate, not the other
way around. But feedback is multidirectional. In a hierarchical organization,
teammates need to send feedback upward to managers; otherwise, management
will have no way of knowing what is actually happening on the front
lines. Teammates also need to provide feedback laterally to coworkers
so that problems can be corrected immediately instead of waiting for
management to respond. As cross-functional teams have become more common,
ongoing feedback among all team members is especially important. Because
every member of the team has a different perspective, each person has
a unique vantage point and insight into the work situation. Sharing
information from one perspective can help other team members see things
they might not have seen from their vantage points. It is everyone’s
responsibility to share his or her unique insights in order to help
the team meet its goal.
| Take a Moment | ||
| Whose behavior or performance affects how you are able to do your job? Certainly your manager. Who else? List them below by position or role. (Don’t forget to include those external to your workplace, as well as internal contacts.) | ||
|
REINFORCE | REDIRECT |
| 1. Identify the role you would be most likely
to provide with reinforcing feedback. 2. Identify the role you would be most likely to provide with redirecting feedback. |
||
Useful Feedback Is Supportive
Useful feedback is given in a spirit of supportiveness. The sole purpose
of giving workplace feedback is to help associates, supervisors, and
coworkers to improve the quality of their work in order to meet goals—it
is always given with helpfulness in mind. Feedback should never be
given in a way that belittles the recipient or makes others look good
at that person’s expense. Criticism is just that, no matter what
the intent is, most people take criticism in a negative way.
Useful Feedback Is Continual
Feedback isn’t just something we provide during an annual review
or some other type of formal evaluation. In order to do our jobs in the
best way possible, we need continual information about our job-related
behaviors and performance. We need to know immediately when we should
redirect our efforts so that simple mistakes don’t become costly
errors, and we need reinforcement when those changes have been successful
so that we continue to develop a specific action.
When feedback is continual, team members feel comfortable responding to each other on an ongoing basis. As we develop solutions to specific situations, redirecting feedback will become reinforcing feedback, and each new piece of information will bring us closer to meeting our individual and group goals, as in Diagram 1.
| Diagram 1: Redirecting Feedback becomes Reinforcing Feedback |
Misperceptions About Feedback
As useful
as feedback can be, many of us are reluctant to give or receive it. Usually
that reluctance is based on misperceptions we have about feedback. Though
we are learning to see feedback in a more positive light, many people
still associate feedback with hurtful criticism. They are reluctant to
hurt the feelings of others, and they certainly don’t
want their own work to be criticized. Perhaps you can recall times in
your life when you have been the subject of hurtful criticism, or times
when your criticism, no matter how well intentioned, seemed to hurt the
feelings of another.
When we think about instances in which we have been subjected to hurtful criticism, we often find that what hurt us wasn’t the fact that someone was commenting on our work, but the way in which those comments were offered. Somehow, feedback about our typing errors turned into an evaluation of our entire educational history and personality.
As we’ve seen, effective feedback doesn’t veer off into these types of unstructured statements. Through using feedback in a positive manner you will be able to respond to any hurtful criticism you may receive so that it, too, becomes useful.
Sharing the Benefits of Continual Feedback
When everyone on your team
learns to provide and expect feedback that is focused on acts, directed
toward the future, goal oriented, multidirectional, supportive, and continual,
you will find that feedback sessions become opportunities for creative
problem solving rather than dreaded encounters. Everyone on your team
will share the same language, and you will be able to share ideas without
fear of hurt feelings or reprisals.
Even as you are beginning to realize that continual feedback can have a number of benefits for you and your organization, you still may not be totally comfortable with the idea. In our next chapter, we will explore some of the common misperceptions that keep people from giving feedback.
| Chapter One Review |
1. Workplace feedback is information we provide fellow employees and team members about |
| 2. Three types of ineffective workplace feedback are |
| 3. Two types of effective workplace feedback are |
| 4. Effective workplace feedback has a number of characteristics. Name three. |
Get the answers.  |
Available now - Chapter Two: Useful Feedback is Detailed Feedback
Martha
Kilbourn is the Manager for Branchwide Education Initiatives at the
California Administrative Office of the Courts Education Division,
also known as CJER. Her work involves developing a systemic approach
to judicial branch education that incorporates partnerships with colleges
and universities, mentoring programs, and creating standards for AOC
education deliveries. She was formerly the Manager of Administrative
Education and developed educational programming for presiding judges,
court executive officers, and other court staff. Martha is a long-time
NASJE member and served as Western Regional Director from 2000-2003.
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of State Judicial Educators
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