In the first of a series on Authentic Feedback – Founder, Sara Sweat shares some of the common misconceptions and challenges with workplace feedback.
Sara Sweat, MA – Founder & CEO, A Life Curated
What’s the worst feedback you’ve ever received? Where were you? Who did it come from? Which words still ring in your ears? Can you picture the environment? How did it make you feel?
Got that image in your mind? Now, take a deep breath & let it go. Because chances are…that wasn’t feedback at all.
One of the most common terms I hear from teams & leaders alike is “feedback”. And, let’s just say the reviews – are not good. This valuable tool has gotten a bad reputation, but in the words of Will McAvoy from HBO’s 2012 dramatic series The Newsroom “I’m on a mission to civilize”.
As best as anyone can tell, the term was coined in the heyday of radio – referring to the unpleasant noise emanating from an electronic device not properly tuned into its signal. Essentially, when part of what is transmitted is unwittingly returned to the source – feedback occurs.
In the workplace, it’s all of us who “feed back” a little of what we heard transmitted by a colleague in the hopes of offering insight & strengthening performance. But, it doesn’t always work. Let’s look at a few of the reasons why.
#1. We equate feedback with criticism & cruelty.
When we conflate feedback with a verbal firing squad, we tend to respond in one of two ways – doubling down or shying away. In her book, Radical Candor, Kim Scott outlines 4 quadrants of responses to difficult conversations. For our purposes, we’ll focus on two of them – Obnoxious Aggression & Ruinous Empathy.
If I’m someone who tends to double down on the opportunity to deliver feedback in a harsh way, I’d fall into the Obnoxious Aggression quadrant. This is the kind of feedback that comes in hot or in a public forum. It’s filled with observations about what someone did wrong with very little useful guidance about what an alternate approach could have been. And, it may miss the point entirely – focusing on pet peeves or preferences – rather than what’s useful to the receiver or the task at hand. Feedback delivered this way is actually negatively correlated with healthy risk taking & creativity – two vital components of innovation. And, worse, it’s a culture killer.
But, shying away from feedback out of a desire to avoid being critical doesn’t work any better. Ruinous Empathy may not leave its recipients humiliated, but it also robs them of any real opportunity for improvement. Feedback delivered in this manner uses mitigating language (sometimes, kinda, sort of, maybe, a little) that confuses the listener & makes it challenging to decipher the important content from the fluff. Think of it like the compliment sandwich…on steroids. You really have to search for useful insights and are likely to walk away feeling unsure how you performed – or worse – feeling great about poor performance.
#2. We have failed to establish unified goals, language, & structure for feedback as a company.
As in anything, without a clear and unified vision for how feedback will be deployed & used within your organization, you will get lackluster adoption & inconsistent results.
In organizations where it’s assumed everyone is on the same page & no mechanisms are in place for measuring results, “feedback” can actually create confusion & distract from value generation.
Imagine rolling out a vacation policy the way many well intentioned organizations roll out feedback programs. “Vacation is an important part of our company culture, so we’re going to start incorporating it into our monthly processes. We can’t be successful & innovate as an organization without the insights we gain from your vacation, so we need you to use it frequently & expect you to use good judgment as to the time and place.”
Que the chaos.
#3. Feedback is only delivered top-down.
Even if we have clearly defined standards & everyone is delivering feedback appropriately & consistently, if the flow of information is unilateral its benefits are limited.
In this model, instead of unlocking a team building system of free flowing ideas, we create an anti-innovation fight club.
Team members begin to tailor their work output to the leaders in their direct reporting chain or focus on siloed work streams in an attempt to garner personal praise from the few individuals or forums where it’s available.
The top-down approach also assumes that leaders have all the answers. And, as someone who has led for decades, I can say with complete confidence – we do not. Innovation comes from all levels of an organization & grows fastest when individuals with diverse backgrounds, talents, & skill sets work together. But, if only one constituency is talking, you won’t even hear some of the best ideas in the room.
Not only will innovation lose, but your job as a leader is actually harder. Without strong peer relationships & collaboration, direct reports learn to trust that your opinion is the only one that matters and will come to you with every minute problem they face.
#4. We don’t equip our leaders to deliver feedback well.
Feedback works best in the context of a unified cultural norm, delivered by leaders with both compassion and clarity. But, for many, this combination doesn’t come naturally. It’s a skill that must be chosen, learned, & practiced.
Without proper support, leaders at any career stage can unwittingly cause real organizational damage with poorly delivered feedback. Immature leaders can shatter trust by talking about (rather than to) team members as a way to build confidence, rapport, or the appearance of secure internal relationships. Seasoned leaders can over-index on their own perspective to the exclusion of new voices and ideas – creating replicas instead of revelation.
It’s why, at A Life Curated, when we launch feedback programs with companies we always include interactive training and ongoing support resources for leaders. This skillset is not always intuitive, but our commitment to the leaders we entrust to drive innovation with this tool should be.
While these pitfalls with feedback are all too common, they are also very fixable. Next week, I’ll share the foundational elements of an authentic feedback program that can transform your business, your culture, & your results.
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