Anna Carroll's Blog

Here’s THE secret to becoming great at feedback: Get comfortable with it.

When feedback comes so naturally that it’s simply the way you work, you get this….

Not only are you fearless about getting continuous, honest feedback, but you crave it!

When someone you’re working with is silent or vaguely approving, you wonder why they’re not telling you what they really think. You prefer a bit of criticism to no reaction at all, because you have a burning desire to improve and you seek great ideas for how to do that.

You frequently initiate 2-way feedback conversations that are focused on future success

When you’re comfortable with it, yes. But the challenge here is that feedback usually stirs up fear responses in the emotional part of your brain. Brain research has proven it it over and over again in brain imaging studies of people giving feedback and receiving feedback. However, after you’re used to it as an “everyday” thing–a no-big-deal thing that you, your boss, your co-workers, and everyone else include as part of their work routines, the fear goes away.

Not only does the fear go away, but you start experiencing it as comfort and engagement!

This is the weird thing…. A work environment where people are encouraged to speak their minds and where you know what your boss is thinking is a plus. Even where there are some tough hurdles suggested in the feedback, employees, according to a slew of 2015 and 2016 workplace studies, prefer a feedback-rich environment to no feedback or all positive feedback.

Employees prefer some critical feedback to all positive feedback

Why? Because they know that all-positive feedback all the time is B.S. They feel manipulated if no one’s developing them and helping them improve their impact. Sure, everyone wants positive feedback—maybe up to 2 or 3 times as much positive as corrective, feedback, but always remember to reach for improvement. The very best, go-getter employees get impatient with all positives and will actually leave a company where they’re not challenged and developed.

How you can get comfy with feedback

Incorporate 5 minutes of feedback time at the end of every meeting. And I mean every meeting, even a routine project chat with a peer.
Prime the pump by suggesting feedback about yourself. There’s bound to be something you notice about how you can get better at your shared work. Then others will offer feedback about their work as well, and you’re off to useful feedback exchange!
Bring up items that apply to the overall process and/or more than one person in the group. This is a good way to get people started with feedback and it’s positive power.
Bring up critical items in one-one-one discussions that stay focused on future success. Paint a picture of the other person excelling as they implement the changes.
Praise positive progress as soon as you see it. Make it meaningful, however, and not like a cheesy parent figure saying “Good job” all day. Explain specific behaviors you saw.
Do all of this very, very often. Like everyday. In some way, incorporate 2-way feedback into almost every discussion.

When you personally get relaxed with feedback, others will pick up on it, and join in on the comfort!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So you started giving feedback to people, you stepped out on a limb to be honest, and you saw some positive results. Maybe you even used one of the new feedback apps to start giving continuous feedback to people you work closely with, and others gave you feedback too.

But that was a while back–a month ago…or more. And now you are wanting to pick it up again, and relaunch your effort. Here are 5 things you can do.

Recognize any positive changes, making sure to explain the behaviors and positive impact you are noticing.  Example: Your group has solved some major delivery issues since you’ve delegated more to the agents. Chris commented on how much he enjoyed trying out his idea. It’s so great that we are speeding up the flow while empowering team members!

2. Revisit any key area that still needs to be improved and explore together how they can address that area more effectively. Example: I see that your training schedule has slowed down and I’d like to ask you to spend more time getting in your training on the new system. How can you schedule that in?

3. Review how helpful their feedback was to you and what you tried, based on their feedback. Ask them for more feedback on that topic and any other topics that are important to your shared goals. Example: Your suggested that I organize my weekly meetings better was so helpful. What do you think of the new format and handling the smaller discussions after the big meeting? What other suggestions do you have for me? 

4. Find a new focus for more feedback to them. Consider your shared goals and what is now most important for them to hear. It can be positive feedback, improvement feedback, or a combination of the two. Example: Since we were asked to handling the new orders without hiring anyone, time efficiency has been my top concern. You’ve had a great impact by focusing the team on removing unnecessary steps and preventing burnout. Thank you!

5. Ask them how they are experiencing this feedback process and how you two can adjust the way you do feedback.  How do you feel about this feedback process? I know that I’ve been remiss in not getting back to you sooner. What do you suggest?

You’ve re-invigorated your feedback effort and used it to motivate people. Feedback is getting more and more integrated into the way you do business!

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’re probably looking for practical feedback tips for improving your work team, and the idea of dreaming seems the opposite of excellence in the workplace. The only dreaming that may appeal to you is daydreaming about your next escape from the stress….

But if you are a manager with direct reports, a project leader, an expert who coaches others, or a team member wanting to give your boss feedback, the very best way to start is to relax and envision excellence from the person you are thinking about.

Why?

Envisioning–deliberately daydreaming–about success is by far the best way to aim your feedback toward the changes you need to request. Spending a few minutes visualizing success will impact your work in a big way and it will help your feedback receiver grow their career too!

When you think of that person whose work needs to improve the most, you see a laundry list of things you wish they would change. But if you finally start a conversation with them and nervously get all of those items out of your mouth, you’ll realize later that you jumped all over the place–from one item on the list to another. The other person will become confused and feel hopeless about fixing all of those areas.

#1 Daydream first

Start differently. When you are alone and in a relaxed state, picture the person doing great work and completing their goals exquisitely! Think ahead for about six months. What are the top 1-2 skill areas you see dramatically improved as you see the great performance? Make notes during and after your 5-10 minute envisioning session.

#2 Choose the top skill needs from your vision

Select the top area that really needs improving. If the person needs to organize better, for instance, break “organizing” into 2-3 component skills–say priority-setting and improved use of calendar software–and start coaching on those. It may take several coaching sessions to see them progress on any one component skill.

#3 Recognize their progress and coach on the next most important coaching topic

After you see progress in those areas, share your positive feedback and move on to another area, then another, etc. over the course of weekly, or daily, feedback conversations.

You will begin to see the progress you want and you will motivate the team member to keep up the good work and learn faster.

“Dare to Dream“

If you dare to dream this way, your frustration will be transformed into positive “dreaming and success on the very things that are most important to you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether it’s getting axed after a contest on reality TV, or feeling the shock from a sudden low rating on a performance review, people who work hard to perform well are assessed by bosses or experts who hold back valuable information about what they should do to improve.

It’s not fair! Why do those in position to judge do this?

On television—it’s all about creating more drama, conflict, shock, and interest in the program. Understandable, although depressing…..

On the job, managers who assess people often hold back for precisely the opposite reason—They fear drama, and therefore postpone any feedback, until upper management requires them to rank people for purposes of pay decisions, restructurings, or layoffs. Then, without warning, they rate their employees low in areas they have never shared with them. If the organization uses an annual performance review, it happens at least once a year. If the organization doesn’t use a review system, there could be an even longer period without feedback.

Why the delay?

The manager believes any corrective feedback will not be well-received, so they hold off til the last minute. So suddenly the feedback, and voila! The shock by workers who didn’t know they were failing or falling behind.

This has got to change………

This is your moment

If you are a manager, start today and give feedback to everyone. Start small and cover only the one or two areas most important for helping each person have a greater impact on the job. Don’t worry about all the past months and years you have failed to give feedback.

For each of your team members, ask what is important now to have a conversation about? This is your moment to make a difference. This is your moment to help them be successful!

 

When someone tells you that something you are doing at work isn’t right, you may feel pretty bad about it. But does it really have to be so bad?

Four things that makes feedback helpful vs. hurtful

When your boss (or any other feedback giver) takes a positive, helpful approach, it feels way better. Here are the four things that a feedback giver can do make the biggest difference in your work life:

Show genuine concern for you
Tell you about it early on
Explain exactly how to turn it around &
Recognize your strengths as well

When you’re the manager in this situation, what’s best for your employee?

First of all, you are right to give the feedback. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and compare getting the feedback vs. not getting the feedback. You wouldn’t want to be blindsided. You are showing your concern by letting them know.

Second, give it right away! If you give feedback early and often, you become MORE trusted as a manager. The managers who are resented are the ones who surprise people with negative judgements after it’s too late to improve the way they’re doing things.

Third, explain, in terms that the other person can understand, how to fix the problem. Test for their understanding and involve them in a discussion of even better solutions.

And fourth, build trust by authentically recognizing the person’s strengths. If the strengths being mentioned ring true, that person is much more likely to “hear” the suggestions about what needs improvement. And these positive feedback conversations should start before the the corrective conversations even come up. The person will know that you see them fully and know what the are contributing to your shared goals.

Doesn’t sound so awful now, does it?…

Not only are you actually helping the feedback receiver, but you are calming down any anxiety you have about “breaking the bad news.” You see yourself as a helping partner in the great things that are to come!

Yesterday afternoon I heard a radio interview with a co-founder of Wolf Parade, a Canadian indie rock band. After hearing a clip of the band’s full-out, high energy sound, I could see why the co-founder was sharing some special terms the players use when they rehearse. Words like “totalocity,” “full circus”and “half circus” help them stoke up one another’s energy.

While in business, we usually try to avoid circuses, I was captivated by the notion of totalocity. In my imagination, totalocity is an attitude of 100% commitment to giving everything you’ve got to the shared endeavor.

To rev up your totalocity with a team member, ask yourself “Why is the goal I share with this person so important?”

Are you producing something urgently needed by a customer? Are you innovating a new, great way to do things? How will meeting the goal and doing a great job help other co-workers and the company succeed? How excited are you about what you guys are doing together? And especially, how will success on this goal be super-beneficial to your co-worker?

What I’ve discovered as I explore the causes of feedback failure is that the recipient of the feedback doesn’t usually feel much commitment from the feedback giver. For example: “This project is late and I need it in right away,” or “The documents you are sending people need to be better organized” are lame feedback offerings. They feel cold and negative.

With totalocity, you demonstrate, your enthusiasm and commitment: “Hey, Terry, let’s take a look at the docs you sent.  Your role in this is really important to help everyone in the company make the transition in the easiest way possible.  Some of our slow adopters may get be confused right off the bat if the information isn’t super organized. What would be the best way to organize them?

With totalocity, you get the person excited about what they are doing and they become personally motivated to improve how they are doing the job.

Today is a great day for totalocity….

Some leaders and team members are just awkward when it comes time to giving feedback to someone who works with them.  You may be one of them.

You can tell you upset the other person

You know the benefits of giving honest feedback, but it comes out all wrong. After a feedback conversation, you realize how emotional you sounded and how unreceptive to your message the other person appeared.

When you get to the point of giving feedback, you express anger or disappointment with the other person, and they, in turn, feel hurt by your disapproval. You can tell, as they slink out of the room that they will be telling this story to one or more co-workers soon. They will feel stressed all day and all night, and they will share it with their spouse or partner. You can picture them shaking their head as they try to figure out how to regain your approval. Worse than that, their morale and motivation will tank, and even worse, they may become angry and make plans to quit. Ay yai yai!

At least you aren’t frozen in feedback avoidance

Believe it or not, the fact that you are giving feedback at all is great progress. Some leaders are still stuck in their fears and haven’t given an ounce of constructive feedback. Their employees are blind-sided when it comes time for performance review. It is good you are out of the gate with a new determination to give frequent feedback. We don’t want you to shut up and slip backwards. Digital age workers everywhere today are desperate to be coached, and they want real time feedback. We just need you to shift your focus when you do it next time.

3 questions to ask yourself before your next feedback conversation

Before giving corrective or constructive feedback to anyone, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why am I upset with this person?

Chances are, there are underlying factors that have existed for days, weeks, or months and you delayed in giving feedback up to this point.

The team member may have screwed up badly. They may have teed off a key customer or wasted thousands of dollars. But, the person had not been thoroughly trained or coached. Or the person doesn’t have the tools or guidelines they need for the job. Neither you nor anyone else had offered feedback when it was clear they hadn’t mastered the process. OR the person has repeatedly behaved inappropriately for the job you need done, and no one has said anything. If that is the case, you are largely responsible for the extreme frustration you are experiencing now.  Action Step: Dial back your anger. Own your part in it. Calm down and place all of your focus on Question 2.

2. What change I would like in the future?

You need to address one thing and one thing only: What you want to see the person doing differently in the future. Any discussion of past behavior must directly serve the purpose of focusing them on your future expectations. A focus on the future, rather than the past, has been shown repeatedly by brain researchers and organizational experts to be exponentially more effective.

Spend a moment visualizing what behaviors you want to see to replace the things you didn’t like. While you’re training yourself to improve your feedback, make notes you can refer to several times before the feedback. Here are some examples of what leaders might want in the future:

-“Please call the customer to apologize & come to a win-win solution and demonstrate empathy skills in future calls. The customer complained all the way up to the VP and we value their ongoing business with us.”

-“Please go through software training and ask peer for coaching on our new system. I see these steps missing and we need that data for financial analysis.”

-“Please give daily progress reports on project work and ask for help immediately if there are any delays. Your unexpected delay created a 3-day lag in delivering the whole project.”

-“Please be proactively in offering help to all of your peers. Two of them are overwhelmed and you are ahead on your part of the project.  

Action step:  Make a crystal clear request for what you want to see. Refer only to past behavior as it helps them see what to do differently.

3. How can I help this person be successful?

Generate a list of ideas for what you can do to shore up their performance in the future. How can you help them stay focused and offer assistance and encouragement along the way? Jot these ideas down with your other notes.

Action step: Offer help for the changes you would like to see. Suggest ideas for how to do that in your feedback discussion and ask them open ended questions about what would help them the most? Reflect back their requests and make authentic commitments to the helpful actions you will take.

 

 

I love to talk to leaders of groups that have done feedback well–whether it’s the chief executive of the whole shebang or a manager in a pocket within a larger, less open company culture. People in these groups expect to give and receive honest feedback on a frequent basis and they’re used to it.  The ah-has for these leaders is that they are now:

More comfortable making suggestions to their boss and peers
More satisfied knowing that people listen and welcome their views
Able to move faster because people share information and ideas in real time

I can see and hear this when facilitate or observe a planning meeting. People jump in and “reality-test” ideas faster so that a plan to move forward has been vetted from all angles in a quick, open, but friendly manner. Folks at lower levels are willing to jump into the fray and explain the impracticalities of a plan before it’s launched to an eye-rolling overwhelmed workforce. Differences of opinion are welcome. No one’s shocked. The decisions just get better.

You might wonder why I am now talking about business decisions, when this blog is about giving and receiving feedback.

It is because transparency in feedback leads to transparency in all work-related conversations. It’s almost a virtuous side effect. Here’s the sequence:

Leader leads an open feedback campaign that is launched in a positive, pro-employee manner
Everyone starts giving and receiving helpful, real-time feedback
People drop their fears and start loving it
People share more business ideas and opinions faster
Everybody benefits and business thrives

So next time you’re wondering why you should start doing something so “fraught” as feedback with your team members, envision everybody laughing and celebrating a few months down the road!

 

 

(From SHRM online, by Dana Wilkie, Published 3/31/16)


The 360-degree feedback review has evolved, especially among big corporations, as a way to encourage candid, well-rounded assessments of workers and to experiment with a more objective—even “scientific”—approach to managing performance.

Typically, such reviews ask colleagues, direct reports, managers and even customers to evaluate an employee. And typically, anonymity tends to be baked into the process to encourage participants to be frank.

But such reviews have their downsides, organizations have discovered, not the least of which is that they can allow ill-intentioned employees to anonymously slam colleagues they may not like, may want to harm professionally or may feel competitive with.

“I think the poster child for such a toxic culture has most recently been Amazon,” said Anna Carroll, an independent consultant to executives and author of The Feedback Imperative: How to Give Everyday Feedback to Speed Up Your Team’s Success (River Grove Books, 2014). “I think Amazon’s emphasis on results at the expense of people led to the lack of integrity that resulted from this use of feedback.”

Amazon was harshly criticized following a recent New York Times article that described, among other things, the online retail giant’s “Anytime Feedback Tool,” which allows employees to send praise or criticism about colleagues to managers. Bosses know who sends the comments, but the subjects of the remarks don’t.

Employees told the newspaper that the tool is frequently used to sabotage others and has created  “a river of intrigue and scheming.”

“They described making quiet pacts with colleagues to bury the same person at once, or to praise one another lavishly,” The Times wrote. “Many others … described feeling sabotaged by negative comments from unidentified colleagues with whom they could not argue. In some cases, the criticism was copied directly into their performance reviews.”

The Pros of 360-Degree Feedback Reviews



Having peers and underlings—as well as supervisors—comment on an employee’s work can provide a broad view of performance and take some of the subjectivity out of a single supervisor’s evaluation.

“Rather than just receiving one top-down opinion of your performance, 360s give employees the opportunity to get feedback from their manager, peers and reports,” said Steffen Maier, a co-founder of Impraise, which sells Web-based and mobile workplace performance products. “This provides different perspectives from people who work with you in different capacities. Getting feedback from peers allows you to better assess how well you work with others and how effective your communication skills are. Receiving feedback from reports provides greater insights into your leadership skills.”

Said Carroll: “Feedback from one person was, and still is, seen as too subjective. It gives executives and HR leaders great comfort and confidence to apply an approach that collects far more data from more sources. The notion that multiple raters are observing [a colleague] from their own unique perspective is seen to be more scientific, data-driven and accurate.”

Such reviews, Maier said, also mitigate “the potential for bias based on gender, ethnicity, age, et cetera. If someone receives an outstandingly positive or negative review, the authenticity can be checked by seeing how each person reviewed the employee in question.”

The 360-degree reviews are typically anonymous, and there’s a reason for that, Maier said.

“Anonymous feedback became so popular precisely because it is difficult for most people to give others candid feedback,” said Maier, whose company offers a non-anonymous feedback option. “Some people become concerned that the recipient will take their comments as criticism. This causes them to be more guarded with their wording and either pass up the chance to give useful advice, or heavily dilute their feedback. Multiply this by 1,000 when it’s your boss.”

360-Degree Downsides



But the anonymous nature of the 360-degree feedback review can lead to the sort of social maneuvering and “intrigue and scheming” that The Times reported at Amazon.

“We are aware of the fact that harassment and bullying can happen, even in positive work environments,” Maier said. “When this happens, companies need a way to identify and address the situation immediately.”

Impraise’s feedback products, he said, have a feature that allows users to flag inappropriate feedback. When feedback is flagged, HR managers are notified immediately so they can investigate. So far, Maier said, less than 2 percent of the feedback that clients have submitted using his company’s products has been flagged as inappropriate.

Some HR experts say anonymity should rarely—if ever—be used when assessing performance.

Sandra van Heeswijk is HR manager at Tam Tam, a digital agency that offers companies e-business and digital marketing products. She said that managers in particular can grow defensive—and use their power to become retributive—if they dislike what they read. She described how one manager, whose workers had rated his performance in an anonymous 360-degree review, arranged meetings with each review participant so he could ascertain “which feedback came from whom.”

“Our ultimate goal instead is to build a transparent and safe working environment where it is normal to give one another feedback,” she said. “In order to do that, 360 feedback can’t be anonymous.”

Carroll agreed.

“Anonymous reviews, in most instances, send the message to employees that all feedback-givers need to be protected and that it is dangerous to speak openly to your co-workers on an ongoing basis. Anonymous feedback can undermine the transparent, open and trusting culture people want to create today.”

Amazon’s practice of “stack ranking” may have contributed to the misuse of the anonymous feedback system, Maier said. Stack ranking refers to the practice of evaluating workers in part by comparing them to others at the organization, rather than by measuring them strictly against performance goals. Under this system, sometimes called “rank and yank,” the “losers” leave or are fired in the periodic culling of staff—“purposeful Darwinism,” one former Amazon HR director told The Times.

“Systems like stack ranking create a competitive rather than collaborative edge to the work environment,” said Maier, who noted that none of his clients use stack ranking. “As employees are pitted against each other during their review process, they are more likely to feel they have to defend their position in the company by not helping, or worse, sabotaging others. The reason why Amazon’s Anytime Feedback Tool didn’t work was … because the environment in which it was introduced encouraged people to form alliances to secure their jobs.”

Alternatively, Carroll said, if regular, open feedback is encouraged among employees at all levels, “it becomes a ‘no big deal’ event.”

“The fact that Amazon was an outlier in their misuse of anonymity, and others have handled [anonymous] feedback in a more honorable manner, does not take away from my view that anonymity in feedback is harmful,” Carroll said. “I have worked with great leaders who made a commitment to feedback, give and receive it themselves, and see the results. Interestingly, people love it. They develop closer relationships, and they can go home on Friday trusting that their boss and others have kept them updated on their performance. They know where they stand, what they can improve and that others are open to their feedback, too.”

Dana Wilkie is an online editor/manager for SHRM.

– See more at: https://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/employeerelations/articles/pages/360-degree-reviews-.aspx#sthash.uShhxrE8.dpuf

There’s no better, faster way for you and your team to hit the bull’s eye of success than to use feedback every day. And Monday is the best time to get feedback going and get it working for you. Here are 4 tips:

Tip #1: Envision your bull’s eye

Start today by envisioning everyone–including yourself–drawing bows and arrows that–Thwap!–hit that center circle for your business this week. Hitting the bull’s eye may mean getting a product or project out the door, re-designing a system or process, solving a frustrating problem, selling more and/or any other business goal. You want it done well and you want it done soon. When you see success, you aren’t seeing people wasting time or energy, aiming off the mark, proliferating mistakes, or adding to the same old inefficiencies. Not only do you see them getting the job done but they are having more fun and having an easier time of it. Write down what people are doing more of, less of, or differently.

Tip #2: Initiate personal conversations

Preferably, start with a team meeting in which you describe the success you are seeing. Share your insights about what it would look like. Then initiate one-on-one meetings or phone calls in which you offer feedback and suggestions about changes each team member can make to get closer to the bull’s eye you see. Be honest and stay focused on the future changes you want to see. In every single conversation, ask for feedback back to you about what you can do differently to lead and support this success.  You are starting feedback dialogues that can guide both of you to the bull’s eye. Continue the feedback dialogues throughout the week.

Tip #3: Coach people or find the right experts to help them

A lot of times, people are not doing what’s best or easiest because they don’t know how to do it better. You will need to teach them, help them, or connect them with knowledge or skills experts who can help them adjust what they are doing. If you are strapped for time, analyze which people and which skills are the top priorities for reaching that target. For the people you are drawing on to train others, make sure to talk to them in advance and explain clearly what you are requesting. Sometimes this coaching or training is amazingly speedy. Even 15 minutes can be enough to re-direct someone’s behavior in a very powerful way!

Tip #4 Show your appreciation for success

I promise you–If you really start these feedback conversations, you will almost immediately see success. And some of it will be fast. So you’ll have plenty of things to praise people for doing. Just don’t forgot to savor the good feelings when the goal is reached. Ask them to explain what changes most helped them to reach their goal. Go over all the good ideas they brought to the table and how their feedback helped you. Give the positive feedback in your team meeting and in one-on-one conversations. Success breeds success, so continue the feedback and good feelings of success!