The Art and Science of Effective Feedback

What is the purpose of feedback?

It’s to get better, sure. But how, exactly?

The best way I’ve come to think about it is that good feedback should catalyze new thinking in the person who is receiving the input.

Good feedback helps someone identify a problem and then helps them figure out how to solve it.

Great feedback gives them new ways to think about the current problem before them, but it also becomes a tool that will help them the next time a similar problem comes up.

Quick Shots

• In a study of Army officers who had participated in “360 reviews” (i.e., receiving feedback from supervisors, peers, and subordinates), two-thirds said they would change their behavior based on the results, but only 10% actually did so.

• Employees with higher core self-evaluations consider supervisors’ negative feedback as motivated by a desire for the employees to do better, while those with low self-evaluations perceive negative feedback as about supervisors’ furthering their own agenda. Thus the type of feedback and this attribution predicts about 20% of the variance in an employee’s motivation to learn.

   

• In a study of pilot debriefings, flight examiners thought they and reviewed pilots contributed equally to the conversation. But the examiners actually said four times as much as the pilots.

Feedback Needs to be TRACKED

Feedback needs to be TRACKED¹.

Feedback needs to be trustworthy. If the person receiving feedback doesn’t think you’re a reliable for whatever reason—you don’t have the necessary experience to give feedback, or if they think you have an ulterior motive, then you’re DOA.   

It needs to be relevant. By this, relevant means that the feedback pertains to something that they care about. But it also means that the thing we’re talking about needs to be under their control. If you tell me that I’d be a great basketball player if only I were two feet taller, that may be true (it isn’t), but it’s useless because there’s nothing I can do about my height.

Relevancy also means that the feedback is something worth doing. For example, perhaps a manager who is about to be transferred to a new department suggests his team changes an office protocol. Even if he has a good idea, it’s going to be hard to get people to follow his suggestion. Instead, they’ll wait for his replacement, to see what she has in mind.    

It needs to be accurate. By this, don’t use hyperbole, i.e., “You’re always late.” If I can think of even  one time that I was early, I can discount your comment as inaccurate and, because of that, untrustworthy.

It should be clear. “Do your best” is common but terrible feedback, because I don’t know what “my best” is. And even if I do know, that doesn’t mean we agree on what my best is. Be concrete and specific.  

It should be kind. By this, I mean that if someone is already frazzled, this might not be the time to give feedback. Or perhaps during a one-on-one meeting, you’ve already said a bunch of feedback, and they’re getting angry or about to cry, then stop for now. Pick it up later.

What I do not mean by kind feedback is that you should give someone false positive feedback. While that may seem nice in the moment, ultimately, false positive feedback is not kind because you didn’t give someone the information they could have used to improve.

Kind feedback shouldn’t be brutal, but it should still be honest.

Feedback shouldn’t be general overstatements, but specific events and examples. This will help you, make sure that you’re trustworthy and accurate.

And resist the temptation just run on with all of your wisdom. Good feedback should be a dialogue. When it’s a conversation, you’ll have a better sense if they understand what you’re saying and will find it actionable.

In Your Sight

• If you give someone the same feedback repeatedly, it’s possible that they aren’t listening. But it’s also likely that it’s the feedback that’s the problem.

• Be on the lookout for “horns and halos,” when someone is so known for one thing that they did—that was either so spectacularly terrible or wonderful—that we ignore the things they’re doing that are inconsistent with our image of them.

• Novices only want feedback from experts, and they want the experts to tell them the right answer.

• Experts don’t really care who gives them feedback (they know they can tell the good from bad), and they know there is no one right answer. It’s just what works best in a particular context.

FYIs

Top Dog is currently available on Amazon Kindle for just $1.99!

And I give speeches and workshops on the art and science of feedback. If you’re interested in having me come talk to your team or organization, let me know.

1. Yes, the “TRACKED” rubric is mine, and you can distribute the TRACKED JPG, but please attribute it to me. Thanks!