Manager's Briefcase
Giving and Receiving Feedback - Chapter 3
©2005 by Pamela Lizardi, M.Ed.
May be used as is or with alterations if proper credit is given to the author.

Chapter: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Editor’s note: This issue continues the third of eight installments of Pam’s materials. If you need the next installment sooner than the next issue, please feel free to email us with your request. If you need to catch up, please read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 in our last issue..

Chapter Three - Planning Effective Feedback

Chapter Objectives

• Recognize the importance of planning feedback
• Ask yourself a series of questions that will help you prepare detailed feedback

Why You Should Plan Your Feedback
Effective feedback doesn’t just happen. Whether you’re giving redirection or reinforcement, you should plan what you are going to say in advance. You will need to identify examples to support the redirection or reinforcement you want to give, and you will need to organize your thoughts so that you are able to present your feedback coherently.

As you take part in more and more feedback sessions, you may find that, in some cases, you actually spend more time planning your feedback than you do giving it. This is not uncommon—the more time you put into your planning, the more smoothly your feedback sessions will run.

Ask These Questions When Planning Feedback
Knowing that you want to give someone reinforcement or redirection is just the beginning of the feedback planning process. Try asking yourself this series of questions to get your feedback planning on track.

• Can I identify and accurately describe the behavior or performance I want to redirect or reinforce and its effects on others in the organization?
• Do I have detailed examples of the act and its effects that I can use to support my description?
• Can I identify and describe the results that I hope my reinforcement or redirection will produce?
• Does the person receiving the feedback understand my expectations for his or her performance?
• Is the person receiving the feedback really responsible for the act in question?
• Is the other person open to receiving feedback from me?
• Have I put off giving this feedback for a long time?
• Have I given myself enough time to prepare the feedback?.

Identifying Behavior and Performance Issues
Can you identify and accurately describe the specific behavior or performance you want to redirect or reinforce and its effects on others in the organization? As we saw in Chapter 2, effective feedback requires more than just a vague statement that you like or dislike someone’s work. Statements like “Something’s wrong here—I don’t know exactly what it is, but change it ” don’t provide enough details for teammates to begin to redirect their actions. Likewise, telling someone, “Keep up the good work!” does little to tell that person what good work is.

Begin your feedback preparation by identifying the specific job performance or behavior issue you want to redirect or reinforce and the effects that act has on others in your organization. Prepare for your feedback sessions by making a list in which you describe the act and its effects, as in these two examples:

Providing Examples
Do you have detailed examples of the act and its effects that you can use to support your argument? The more examples you can describe, the stronger your case will be, especially if you are asking someone to redirect an action and are concerned that the person might resist your redirection. Here is one way you could list examples of actions and effects to support redirection of the teammate who is late to work:

Identifying Desired Results
Remember, the purpose of giving feedback isn’t to dwell on the past—it’s to plan for the future. Can you identify and describe the results that you hope your reinforcement or redirection will produce? After you give your feedback, what types of actions do you hope to see?

In the case of reinforcement, the answer is easy—you hope to see the act in question repeated and developed. In the case of redirection, you may need to give a little more thought to this question. Although you will want to take input from the person receiving your redirection about specific short- and long-term goals, you should have some objectives in mind. Keep these goals in sight as you talk to the person to ensure that the action plan you negotiate leads to the results you want.

Understanding Expectations
Does the person receiving the feedback understand your expectations for his or her behavior and job performance? This is an especially important question for cases of redirection. Often we assume that people understand exactly what they are supposed to be doing in a given situation, but that may not be the case. Ask yourself what you and others have done in the past to clarify your expectations. Refer to the person’s job description and to previous performance evaluations—have your expectations ever been addressed before?

If you discover that no one has ever addressed the act in question with your feedback recipient, your redirection may take the form of clarifying your expectations. If the expectations are new to the teammate, you may also need to discuss such questions as:

• Are the expectations fair and reasonable?
• Is the feedback recipient capable of meeting them?
• Are there ways in which the team can help the feedback recipient meet the expectations?

Controlling the Situation
Is the person receiving the feedback really responsible for the act in question? The person to whom you are planning to give your feedback may have no trouble understanding your expectations yet be unable to meet them. This could occur for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the feedback recipient is not actually responsible for the situation you are addressing, or perhaps the recipient does not have the resources to redirect or repeat his or her actions..

Before you give feedback to anyone, try to discover if other people might be responsible for the situation. You may want to reinforce Ben’s addition of bar graphs to the weekly sales memo, but he can only do this when accounting gives him the figures. Perhaps Anita in accounting needs your reinforcement, too.

If you think outside factors may be affecting your feedback recipient’s actions, but you aren’t sure, ask the recipient in the course of giving your feedback and take his or her response into account as the two of you develop plans for the future.

Accepting Feedback
Is the other person open to accepting feedback from you? This will depend on your relationship with the person receiving your feedback and his or her attitude toward the feedback process. Questions to ask yourself include:

• Are you a credible feedback source for this person?
  Does your feedback recipient believe that you have the expertise to provide competent redirection or reinforcement? If you believe your credibility may be an issue, make doubly sure you have plenty of examples to support your comments.
  
• Is your relationship with your feedback recipient cordial?
  People are always willing to accept suggestions more readily from someone with whom they have a good working relationship. If you do not have a good relationship with your receiver, or perhaps have criticized (rather than redirected) the receiver’s work in the past, you may need to reestablish your relationship before feedback can be effective.
  
• What is your status relative to the feedback recipient’s?
  In hierarchical organizations, it is often difficult to give feedback, especially redirection, to a manager or supervisor. If you are presenting feedback to a higher-up, present plenty of examples to establish your credibility and remember to present your comments as supportive rather than critical..

Delaying Feedback
Have you put off giving this feedback for a long time? If you previously looked on feedback as unpleasant or unimportant, you may have put off approaching the receiver with your feedback. Unfortunately, delaying feedback makes it harder to give that feedback when you finally do sit down with your receiver.

• If you have delayed giving redirection, the situation may have had time to escalate from a minor glitch to a serious problem.
  
• If you have delayed giving reinforcement, your recipient may not remember the act in question and may wonder why it has taken you so long to respond.
  
• The receiver of your feedback may not be open to your input after such a long delay. Delayed redirection can often result in responses like “But that’s the way we’ve always done it” from the recipient.

You may need to explain to your feedback recipient that you realize that you have not always been timely in giving feedback, and that this is your first effort to correct that problem. Don’t delay—if you have been avoiding a feedback session, don’t put it off any longer! Immediately schedule a session and start to prepare for it.

Taking Time for Feedback
Have you given yourself enough time to prepare your feedback? Don’t kid yourself—it takes time to think about all of the issues we’ve just mentioned, as well as to document and describe the actions you hope to redirect or reinforce. Always give yourself enough time so that you begin every feedback session fully prepared.

Chapter Three Review
True	False
		You may find yourself putting more time into planning your feedback than you do actually giving it.
		It is not necessary to identify and describe specific actions you want to redirect or reinforce -- just stating you like or dislike someone's work is enough.
		You should always be sure your feedback recipient understands your expectations for his or her performance before you begin a feedback session.
		Before you begin a feedback session, you should be sure the person you will be redirecting or reinforcing is actually responsible for the action in question.
		Delayed feedback is no more difficult to give than timely feedback.
Get the answers.

Coming next month, Chapter Four: Steps for Giving Effective Feedback.

Pamela Lizardi was appointed as the Training & Staff Development Administrator for the Trial Courts of Maricopa County in July 2003 after serving as the Training Coordinator for Maricopa County Limited Jurisdiction Courts since March 2002. Pam has spent over 22 years in the United States Army in various positions both in the active service and the National Guard. Pam has written numerous training programs, most significantly is Improving One-on-One Training. Pam has a successful 19 year training background. Recently she completed her Masters in Education with Ottawa University, graduating Suma Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA. She received a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. Pam is also adjunct faculty with Mesa Community College in the Judicial Studies program. She holds certificates from Arizona Dept. of Education in teaching Career & Technical Education, Business & Marketing, Adult Education, and Secondary Education in History & Business. Pam continues her to learn with two organizations, National Association of State Judicial Educators and the American Society of Training and Development, along with additional college classes.

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