Is your feedback great?
Tag Archives: effective feedback
How to give effective feedack
How to make feedback less threatening
Feedback can feel threatening to the person receiving it. Here are some things to consider to make feedback feel less threatening to team members.
Signs you are not focused on your people
Effective leadership happens when people are focused on their team members and not just problems. When managers are focused on their people, they give better feedback and are able to motivate and encourage their team members. Here are five signs to look out for when managers are not focused on their people.
Three poor mindsets for feedback
To give effective feedback managers must have the right mindset. Here are three mindsets that managers must not have if they want to give effective feedback.
The three types of feedback
Feedback is a very important aspect of the manager’s role. In fact, it is impossible to manage effectively without giving good feedback to team members. Here are the three types of feedback that managers should be giving their team members.
SETTING EXPECTATIONs AND MANAGING PERFORMANCE
I had the privilege of delivering a Setting Expectations and Managing Performance virtual training session to a set of managers today. The session which was 2-hours long was attended by five participants. I’m sure when you hear 2-hours, you’re probably thinking, “that’s too long!”. The time was not even enough and that was partly due to the rich discussion that ensued during the course.
During the session we focused on:
- Setting performance focused expectations such as SMART objectives
- Agree behavioural expectations as a Team
- A simple managing performance cycle (An image of the cycle is below)
- Giving feedback using the Situation, Behaviour, Impact (SBI) framework
We had the opportunity to practice setting expectations and giving feedback using some scenarios which I put into a workbook I sent to them prior to the session.
So, what did I learn from delivwering the session:
- It was easier for managers to attend since it was just 2-hours since they did not need to travel and that showed in how relaxed they looked.
- Being able to manage discussions is very important as they can take up a lot of time but at the same time discussions are probably the most effective learning tool in a virtual session.
- Prepare, prepare and prepare some more. I had some typos in the workbook which I didn’t like (my bad).
- Listen to the participants, even you as a facilitator will learn a lot from them.
- Have fun, don’t make it too serious.
For me, the most important aspect of the course was something I call, “My Managing Performance MOT”. This is kind of like a self-reflective activity where the delegates answer “Yes“, “No” or “Not Sure” to a set of questions related to aspects of managing performance discussed during the session. The aim of this activity was to challenge them to think about:
- what they should start doing,
- what they should stop doing, and
- what they should continue doing.
I first used the activity for a Managing Wellbeing session I delivered last week to another group of managers and it worked well, so I decided to include it in this session also, but with questions relevant to the topics covered.
Overall, I believe it was a useful session and I am expecting some feedback to make it even better.
VIRTUAL TRAINING ACTIVITY – A FRAMEWORK FOR GIVING EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
INTRODUCTION
This virtual training activity explores a framework for giving effective feedback. After taking the participants through the activity, they will be able to identify the components of effective feedback.
THE ACTIVITY
To set up the discussion:
- Direct each person to the section in their workbook titled – WARREN AND JULIE’S FEEDBACK.
- Allow each person to read the information in the section, answer the question asked and put their answers in the chat window.
- Respond to their answers as you have responded to chat window answers previously by acknowledging each person and reading out their answers.
- Hopefully, they should have identified that Julie’s feedback was more effective. If not, point that out to them.
Warren and Julie’s Feedback
Warren and Julie are team leaders who witnessed an incident between a customer and one of the customer service assistants named Anne. At different times both gave Anne some feedback about the situation. Below is their feedback.
Warren’s feedback
Hi Anne, please be careful next time. Your behaviour upset the customer. You must act more professional in such situations.
Julie’s feedback
Hi Anne, the customer you just finished dealing with looked upset. I noticed while dealing with her, you gave very little eye contact. You also glanced at your phone a number of times in between attending to her. That may have triggered her behaviour and caused her to become upset. Next time, please give customers adequate eye contact and don’t glance at your phone to prevent the customer from becoming upset.
After reading Warren and Julie’s feedback to Anne, which feedback do you think is more effective feedback and why?
Write your views in the chat window
- After that, let them know that you are now going to show them what made Julie’s feedback more effective.
- Display the next slide titled – THE SBI FEEDBACK FRAMEWORK.
- After displaying the slide tell them that:
- The difference between Warren and Julie’s feedback is the SBI framework.
- Julie’s feedback followed the principles of the SBI framework, but Warren’s didn’t.
- As shown here SBI stands for SITUATION – BEHAVIOUR – IMPACT.
- Display the next slide to explain the SBI framework. The slide has no title.
- You will need to press on the slide three times to display each component of the SBI Framework.
- First read out the information on the slide defining each component of the SBI model.
- After that, direct them to the section in their workbook’s titled – JULIE’S SBI FEEDBACK.
JULIE’S SBI FEEDBACK
SITUATION: When giving feedback the situation refers to where and when the behaviour you are giving feedback about took place. For instance, Julie said, ‘Hi Anne, the customer you just finished dealing with looked upset’. Julie was clear regarding the situation she was giving feedback about, but Warren was not.
BEHAVIOUR: This is when you talk about the behaviour you saw. Julie said that, ‘I noticed while dealing with her, you gave very little eye contact. You also glanced at your phone a number of times in between attending to her’. Warren on the hand mentioned behaviour but was not specific about which behaviour.
IMPACT: The final component of SBI is impact, which emphasizes the consequences of the behaviour you just spoke about. Warren did talk about the consequences, but he was not very clear or specific. Julie was clearer and more specific. She said, ‘that may have triggered her behaviour and caused her to become upset’.
Julie did not stop there. She also pointed out how Anne should behave in the future to prevent a customer from getting upset. SBI feedback isn’t just about telling people what the situation is, their behaviour and its impact but also about identifying what needs to change for a better result.
Julie ensured her feedback contained:
A clear description of the SITUATION she was giving feedback about.
Description of the BEHAVIOUR she observed in the situation.
Description of the IMPACT of the behaviour.
What needs to happen in the future to obtain a better result.
- Let them spend about 3-minutes reading the information.
- When they finish reading tell them that:
- Julie used the SBI framework to make it clear to Anne about the situation she was giving feedback on, her behaviour during the situation and the consequences or impact of her behaviour.
- She also clarified how Anne should behave next time to avoid the negative consequences.
- SBI feedback is not just about helping people understand what happened but also pointing out the necessary alternative behaviour where applicable.
- Another important observation about Julie is that she did not use judgemental or accusatory language, just facts about what she observed.
- Unlike Warren who used the words ‘careful’ and ‘professional’ which can be taken as judgemental and accusatory language.
- When you use SBI feedback, you focus on talking about the facts of the behaviour you observed and not appraisals or judgement about what you feel the behaviour is, like Warren did.
- After that, display the next slide titled – SBI BENEFITS.
- Let them know that the information on the slide are three benefits of using the SBI framework, then read out the information.
- After that end the session.
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