Better Feedback
This spring, Coach Jerry provided a steady stream of feedback to my daughter’s 5th grade softball team. Even though they lost their last game of the season 9 to 8, the improvements in the girl’s abilities were clear. Better ball contact was being made on offense, while more plays were being made at first on defense.
Now imagine that Coach Jerry hardly talked to any of the players until the season was over. Only after the umpire has called the very last out of the season does he meet with each player individually to point out 5 things she needs to improve for the following season. Not only would this be useless for the season that just ended, most of the feedback would be forgotten by the time the next one started. No one believes that this method of providing feedback is effective for youth softball teams; however, the annual review is still the most common method of delivering feedback in the workplace.
So what is required for feedback to translate into development and growth? Perhaps the most important clues lie in a study that sought a way to give effective criticism to high school students without undermining their confidence or motivation: “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them [i].” Now known as “magic feedback” because of its efficacy in motivating students to revise their work, these 19 words teach us that the context is just as important as the content.
In order to set the right context:
1) Develop positive connections that clearly signal that you are invested in their development prior to providing feedback. Giving feedback to someone you have yet to develop a trusting relationship with is no more constructive than unsolicited advice you receive from strangers on BART.
The punditry elaborates on context:
2) Decouple performance reviews and development discussions. In his book The Culture Code, Dan Coyle suggests performance reviews are by definition loaded with judgment and fraught with pay implications, and should be separated from professional development discussions. It’s hard to focus on what you need to work on to grow when you are really thinking about money and promotions.
3) Make it real-time and make it easy to keep the lessons fresh and relevant. Rather than commit to a fixed time interval to provide feedback (e.g. end of each week), habit stack to provide feedback after each meaningful interaction (e.g. after each meeting / presentation / customer event). Take advantage of the most convenient medium of communicating feedback available.
As we move away from the context to the content of feedback, the solution gets more complicated. For example, when providing feedback, should one focus on the positives or the negatives? Some advocate for compliment sandwiches where negative feedback is placed between two pieces of soft, flattering, easy-to-consume white bread. Others have argued for getting rid of the compliment sandwich pointing to research that suggests receivers of feedback often focus on the positive beginning and end while disregarding the meat in the middle. Others subscribe to Gallup’s perspective that suggests that feedback should focus mainly on emphasizing the receiver’s strengths[1].
Similarly, perspectives also vary significantly on how direct you should be with your criticism. Ray Dalio of Principles fame paints brutal honesty as a moral obligation. In Radical Candor, Kim Scott uses a softer brush by advocating for “challenging directly while caring personally.” In other words, practice tough love.
Considering the evidence, I think the most appropriate answer to these feedback content questions was also my favorite one while I was a management consultant: “It depends!”
4) Match mix of ‘tough’ and ‘love’ with level of experience. While studying students learning French, researchers Finkelstein and Fishbach found that beginners seek positive encouragement to build confidence and commitment; however, as expertise increases and commitment is more secure, people seek more negative feedback to accelerate development.[ii] Provide a larger mix of ‘love’ to those new to a job or task while providing more ‘tough’ to the experts.
5) Match level of candor with level of established trust. Borrowing from the 19 words of “magic feedback” above, signals of good intentions behind the feedback must be crystal clear where trust is either low or new. Where your good intentions have already been established, you should be able to ratchet up the candor.
Where can we start the journey of providing better feedback? Whether it’s positive or negative, brutal or chocolate coated, let’s begin by providing one person with whom you already have a trusting relationship with one well-timed piece of feedback.
[1] Gallup also happens to own the CliftonStrengths tool, formerly known as Strengthsfinder
[i] Yeager et al (2014). Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust: Wise Interventions to Provide Critical Feedback Across the Racial Divide. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Vol. 143, No. 2, 804–824.
[ii] Finkelstein, S. R and Fishbach, A. (2011). Tell Me What I Did Wrong: Experts Seek and Respond to Negative Feedback. Journal of Consumer Research.