Principles of Effective Feedback

Why this conversation is important and useful is its versatility. The principles that will be discussed work perfectly in all areas of our lives. And everywhere they bring great results - when used correctly. We usually do not recommend practicing speaking skills in front of relatives and friends at trainings. But in this matter, on the contrary, we strongly recommend that the principles of effective feedback be introduced and used in personal life as soon as possible.

The quality of feedback is perhaps the key issue of any training, and, in general, the development process. Good feedback (for short, OS) signals in time how correctly we are moving towards our goal, whether we need to correct the course or change speed (and perhaps even urgently turn around in the opposite direction and change the mode of transport). The OS also affects the goals themselves - they have to be adjusted, or even changed. In a word, the importance of a quality OS in our life can hardly be overestimated - unfortunately, many people could not achieve what they are capable of, due to the wrong OS from their mentors.

Take a look around - we constantly receive a powerful stream of assessments, criticism, advice, discussions and condemnations of ourselves and each of our actions. What is splashing in this stream?

Empathy?

The desire of a critic to show off his mind?

Seeking to hurt us?

Intention to put in place?

Indifferent execution of the protocol?

Alas, sometimes even a sincere desire to help resembles the strong friendly embrace of a porcupine - it will gouge and splinter. After all, the contexts of the process of transferring knowledge and experience can be very different. Compare: "I teach you - you are still young and stupid - you are clumsy and generally worthless" and "you are learning - you are striving to become a master - you are doing great!". In which of the "wraps" did you receive your training more often?

Of course, useful lessons can be learned from any touch of life - if you have the strength to stand on your feet after this touch. And yet, from the point of view of efficiency and speed of learning, it is much better when the OS is given in compliance with certain principles.

So - competent advice, or principles of an effective OS.

1. FRIENDLY.

The most important condition for a person to accept your advice is the creation of a friendly, trusting atmosphere. This is perhaps the fundamental difference between constructive advice and malicious criticism.

Try right now in front of the mirror to make a disgruntled grimace, stand in a defiantly combative pose and depict an aggressive gesture with your hands. Well, how? I think that I really want to respond to the reflection seen in the mirror with the same aggression (and if you did a good job with a grimace, then just run away) - what kind of feedback is there!

The atmosphere of trust and friendliness creates a positive working attitude, encourages the full disclosure of creative potential, helps to take the OS "essentially", without "bothering" over the possible "secret motives" of its author. Moreover, this is true both for working with other people and for evaluating your own performance.

Creating such an atmosphere is sometimes difficult, but almost always necessary!

2. SINCERE.

Sometimes - imbued with the desire to achieve maximum friendliness - we begin to issue an OS that does not quite correspond to reality. Whether the desire to please it, the fear of upsetting - the result is sad. The speaker, who received such an OS "in roses", stops in development.

To be effective and help you grow in skill, your OS must be honest and sincere. There is no need to be silent about the shortcomings - otherwise a person will not know about them. There is no need to invent non-existent virtues - otherwise a person will not understand what he should work on next. An insincere OS is meaningless, since it does not fulfill its main task.

Speaking about this principle at trainings, we always emphasize that it is also important not to be afraid to give your sincere feedback if you work in a group and the opinions of other participants (and even trainers!) do not coincide with your opinion. This is normal, the general objective picture always consists of many personal SINCERE opinions that do not fit one under the other.

3. PRAISE FIRST! We say what we like.

In trainings, this is the most ardently supported in discussion and the most difficult principle to implement)))

It would seem that it is so easy to tell a person first of all that he is doing well, to praise him, to rejoice with him! But in real life, for some reason, everything turns out the other way around - is this our mentality, or what?

Why is it so important to start with praise?

The person made great efforts, tried - it is important to note this in order to consolidate positive motivation, to give a positive assessment of the achieved result;

This will strengthen the atmosphere of friendliness and trust to each other, will help to perceive information about shortcomings more constructively;

A person will know about his strengths, about what he can rely on in his future work, this will strengthen his confidence in his abilities.

You yourself, paying attention, first of all, to the strengths of the speaker, will have an excellent opportunity to “take” them for yourself, learn how to do the same and enrich your “arsenal” of strong techniques, useful habits and witty solutions - excellent material for your Self-Developing System !

Add some of your own...

Sometimes at trainings the question arises - what to do if there is nothing to praise for? Invent something, violating the principle of sincerity? Or immediately criticize, violating the principle of friendliness?

The answer here is simple. Both I and my colleagues, having conducted a considerable number of trainings and having seen a very large number of listeners at them, agreed that there is always something to praise a person for. As unfortunate as his public speaking, his job performance, his seminar response, his attempt at cooking dinner, the list goes on.

If you can't find reasons to praise, then something is wrong with you as an expert, as a coach, as a parent, as a leader ... continue the list. So, you need to urgently work on yourself in this direction.

Regarding praise, as the basis of feedback, I will share an interesting parable:

“One young, wealthy man bought a beautiful house with a beautiful garden. And his neighbor was an envious man. To such an extent envious that every time he did some kind of disgusting thing. And then one fine morning, a young, wealthy man opened the doors of his house, and on the porch he saw a bucket full of slops. He took this bucket, poured out the slop, polished the bucket to a shine, went to his garden and filled this bucket with the ripest, most beautiful apples and went to his neighbor. The envious man, seeing that a neighbor was approaching his house, was delighted: “Finally, I got him!” and ran to open the doors of his house, hoping for a scandal. But, opening the door, he saw a neighbor who, holding out a bucket full of beautiful apples, said: “He who is rich with what, he shares with it ...”
Friends, I ask you to share apples with each other in feedback!

By the way, in the feedback, the participants of our trainings said that this principle - first of all, to notice positive things and phenomena around them - gradually turning into a habit, radically changed their system of views on the world around them as a whole. And life has become much happier, kinder and richer. Try it too!

The rest of the principles will be discussed in the next issue. We will discuss

How can you criticize anyway?

How to light up your eyes

Why brevity is really the sister of talent

Who to give the first word

And other interesting things...

Faithful to you Words and Right Decisions!

Vyacheslav Salomasov
Psychologist, coach, business coach.
Head and leading coach of the school of public speaking "True word"
https://vernoeslovo.com/

HRTimes #29

According to psychologists, feedback (FB) is one of the most effective tools for human development. It is impossible to move forward if there is no understanding whether you are moving in the right direction. In most modern organizations, feedback is one of the key practices of regular management. However, the desire to extract the maximum benefit from this procedure inevitably raises a number of questions. Who should give feedback and when? How to build a conversation? Finally, is it worth it to open the received feedback to your surroundings? These questions were answered by experts from ECOPSY Consulting, as well as heads of HR departments of the largest Russian companies.

Pavel Bezruchko, managing partner of ECOPSY Consulting:

“How to make feedback a real tool for people development? Many companies today use the “360 degrees” procedure in working with employees. This is a promising technique, but often it remains only a laborious and tedious formality that does not give the expected effect - an impulse to self-development. This happens because managers, and often HRs, do not know how to work with results: the report has been issued, but long formal individual development plans (IDPs) based on “360 degrees” almost never “fly” normally.

At the HR&TrainingsEXPO2015 exhibition, I casually talked about how I use 360 ​​degrees for self-development. And my approach unexpectedly aroused a keen interest among HR specialists.

Technically, everything is simple: after reading your 360 report, you need to think about and write down the answers to four questions on one A4 page, and then send this sheet to those who gave you feedback. The difficulty is that the answers must be sincere and well thought out.

I will share excerpts from my recent letter.

Question 1: what will I continue to do/manifest (of my strengths highlighted in 360 degrees)?
Answer: meaningfully advise colleagues, help those who turn to me for help.

Question 2: what will I try to do differently and would be grateful for a reminder and feedback (from those of my weaknesses / areas of development in "360" that I want to change in myself)?
Answer: listen better; try to understand the interlocutor, even if he cannot express his idea in one minute and “without water”.

Question 3: what I will not change in myself, despite the criticism?
Answer: treat the most mediocre employees and team members with sincere respect.

I'll explain a little. And I, and in general all of us, need to make sure that there are fewer mediocre people in the company, and more talented and productive people. Mediocre employees should find their talent and attach it to the cause - or leave.

Question 4: What do I want to change, but don't understand how to do it, or am I not good at it (your advice or other help would be useful to me)?
Answer: pay more attention to the atmosphere in the team.

For the first time, consultants and HRs can help employees write such a “developmental reflection” (this process is much faster and more interesting than compiling a traditional IPR). Ideally, if such an exercise is done by all team members of a particular unit. Then, having received each other's "developmental reflection", they routinely give their colleagues feedback to help them develop in their designated areas. For example, in my case, it may be a reminder to listen to even those who poorly formulate their thoughts, or praise if I really keep my promise.

Gradually, an environment is being formed where people develop each other and where development is not separated from work. Another important effect is that because people tell each other directly about what they will not change about, there is less false expectation, frustration, and related tension in the relationship.

Of course, this approach is not a panacea. For its implementation, a certain level of trust in the team is needed - but, as it turned out, it is by no means prohibitive. Some of our clients also liked this way of working with feedback - it really helps.”

Andrey Onuchin, Consulting Director, Partner, Head of Business Sociology practice at ECOPSY Consulting:

“Without feedback, it is impossible to correct your mistakes, so the basic skill of a leader is to give employees a quality OS, helping them become more efficient.

A common feedback option is a performance appraisal, when a manager evaluates an employee's results. In addition, now it is becoming more and more popular to receive OS from clients (in cases where there are clients). It is possible that consultants provide feedback - for example, after an assessment.

Sometimes "traditional" feedback forms are not enough for one reason or another, and then the company introduces regular procedures to make the OS more objective and developing. The most common evaluation technique is "360 degrees", when an employee is evaluated by colleagues, subordinates and a manager. This is a very concentrated OS, it covers all the main aspects of human activity.

But procedures are procedures, and the main question is how people will use feedback, whether they will be able to use new knowledge. I remember a case from my practice when the manager, having received the results of "360 degrees", did not even begin to open the envelope. He was a complex person, he openly clashed with many in the company, and he simply did not have the courage to get acquainted with the opinion of the team.

The vast majority of people who are set up for their own development accept and study the OS. In fact, working with feedback is a certain culture, just like taking care of your physical health. A normal, healthy, reflective manager gains experience scanning what he does better and what he does worse, and over time begins to understand in advance how others can evaluate him. But unpredictable reactions are also possible. I regularly come across people who know about their “pain points”, but until the last hope that they will not be told about it. Such people are initially outraged by the results of the assessment, and after a while they recognize them, adding that it is not very pleasant to listen to criticism addressed to them. Another option - a person refuses to evaluate himself (in the "360 degrees" method, self-assessment is required). And he puts forward the following arguments: “I don’t want to evaluate myself, let others praise me, I will be pleased.” Or: "I don't want to rate myself highly."

Whether or not to open your 360-degree assessment results to colleagues is an ambiguous question. First of all, you need to understand why this is being done. An employee who discusses the scores with others either seeks to clarify what is behind these scores, what his actions interfere with colleagues, or tries to get emotional support, relieve tension. The second is a less constructive way of using the results, but humanly quite understandable. Usually a person easily tells others how he was appreciated, if the opinion of others coincides with his own views on further development. In addition, he must have high self-esteem, which no feedback will destroy. In my opinion, only a mature person is ready to accept the fact that he is not perfect and does not have to be perfect. But much depends on the atmosphere within the organization. Some companies (mostly European ones) conduct a 360-degree assessment with our help and immediately book a session for managers to discuss the results with employees, where the manager asks his subordinates for recommendations on what to change in himself, how to become more effective. Since the discussion is organized and conducted in a safe environment, the leaders calmly agree to this. But in Russian companies, this practice is extremely rare - I know of only two examples.”

Maria Makarushkina, Partner, Head of VIP Consulting Practice at ECOPSY Consulting:

“Recently, I have advised several managers of a fairly high level. And every time the same thing happened: I come to a meeting - and I see that women have wet eyes, and men look depressed. These serious and responsible people received their 360-degree results in their hands and experienced strong emotions. They were upset because they were faced with unpleasant information: someone rated them much lower than they rated themselves. In addition, managers were demotivated - some to the point that they began to think about leaving the company.

Such experiences are the primary reaction to feedback in those cases when it diverges from the person's ideas about himself. First, resistance arises, an attempt is made to blame other people who simply do not see everything in your work. At the next stage, a person usually accepts feedback, begins to think about the situation and really change. But these clients of mine were seriously offended. I still hear from them that they have become cooler in their attitude towards colleagues.

In fact, their 360-degree scores weren't bad - they just got the report and studied it on their own, with no one to help them interpret the scores. And one or two not very successful formulations are enough for feedback to hurt a person. It unsettles sensitive people, their wound does not heal for a long time. And such emotional reactions are not isolated.

For feedback to become a development tool, several conditions are necessary.

First, it must be given carefully. You should not just silently hand in the report - the process should be accompanied by a consultant or representative of the HR service. The form in which the information is presented is also important. Even the negative can be wrapped in such a wrapper that it will not cause resistance in a person. Giving value judgments, it is necessary to give specific examples. One of my clients was accused of not having systems thinking, but was not presented with any supporting facts. And the person was very worried: he thought that everything was in order with his thinking (in my opinion, it was so). Naturally, he called such feedback unfair.

Secondly, it is best if feedback is given by people who are significant to the person. For example, in some Russian companies, employees bow before the hierarchy, and the assessment from the head is more significant for them than from subordinates.

Finally, feedback will be a development tool if it falls on prepared ground - that is, when a person sees his shortcomings and realizes that some features of his behavior need to be improved. Adult accomplished people are ready to change if they really believe that they have a flaw that prevents them. And then it depends on the person what he will do with the information received: he will independently take some steps to improve himself or use the help of a coach.

Is it worth showing colleagues your assessment results, openly talking about your shortcomings? There is no consensus here - it all depends on the culture of the company. In most large companies, no one will disclose the results of the assessment, and managers in the first place. In many organizations, it is important to keep face and not flaunt your weaknesses. People already see your shortcomings, and it is not always advisable to emphasize them. In addition, in Russian culture, openness can turn against a person - they can later remember this.”

Natalia Yamshchikova, Director of SIBUR Corporate University:

“For our company, feedback is not just words. We put a deep meaning into this concept. More than five years ago, SIBUR began to introduce a production system, and one of its key elements is the standard of work for the manager (CRR). Feedback is included in this standard (along with delegation, linear bypasses and other practices), and all managers, starting with the first persons, actively use it.

Our performance management system assumes that the employee receives feedback from the manager on the results of work and the results of the 360-degree assessment. Depending on the categories of personnel, this happens 1-2 times a year. But today in the world all processes are accelerating, so the intervals between human actions and receiving feedback should be reduced as much as possible. This speed of response becomes a competitive advantage. Let me explain with my example. I give feedback to key employees in my department about once a week: if I liked something, I note that the person did good, motivate me to continue in the same spirit; In the same way, I inform you if something does not suit you.

It's no secret that feedback is a delicate tool. Therefore, we train managers on how to communicate with employees. It is better to start with an analysis of a specific situation - to let the employee speak and draw his own conclusions. It seems that there is nothing complicated here, but many leaders have to restrain themselves in order not to start talking themselves. In Russia, a directive management style has been developing in production for a long time, so building a dialogue is very important, especially when the company employs 25,000 people. People are our main reserve for increasing productivity, so our task is to instill in them the right attitude.

Feedback changes not only employees, but also the managers who give it. If earlier the manager used only one management style, now he owns a palette of styles and sees that the result can be achieved in different ways. This is a real breakthrough for manufacturers. The number of rationalization proposals from local workers is growing year by year, which once again convinces us that the culture of dialogue is bearing fruit.

Should you share your feedback with colleagues? It all depends on the maturity of the team. In my team, all employees are strong and self-sufficient, so I can discuss such things with them - including unpleasant moments. If a company at all levels talks about maintaining a dialogue, then it is important for people to make it clear that their opinion has been heard. Then, starting with myself and publicly promising to work on my shortcomings, I, as a leader, have the right to demand changes from others as well. However, this all concerns corporate rules and issues of performance discipline. If we are talking about "soft matters" - for example, about an individual style of behavior or features of temperament that do not interfere with work - then, for example, I do not consider it appropriate to change and honestly declare this. I think my colleagues understand me.”

Marina Derevleva, Director of Training and Development, X5 Retail Group:

“In my opinion, feedback is one of the key tools for the development of the company and the formation of its culture, as well as an important means of maintaining high performance. So I won't be much mistaken if I say that regular feedback is the job of a leader.

In our company, managers communicate with their employees regularly, some less often, some more often. Daily meetings, weekly meetings and monthly summing up are always accompanied by feedback, and as part of the annual performance management cycle - when summing up the results for the year and during the semi-annual review of goals - managers give feedback to each of their subordinates, and this is already a formalized process of the company.

It just so happens that the higher the manager, the less feedback he receives from others, so it is very important that managers create an environment in which their subordinates give them feedback, and possibly request information from their employees themselves. X5 Retail Group managers very often request feedback on their own initiative. For example, I regularly ask whether I conveyed the information to my employees accurately, whether they really understood me. In addition, I can directly ask my colleagues if my judgments were not too harsh and uncompromising, how they perceived one or another of my reactions. If colleagues report that I was overly categorical and did not listen to other points of view, I try to somehow rehabilitate myself, I ask for advice on how I could have done it differently. People willingly give feedback when they understand that frankness will not turn against them later.

A good feedback tool is the 360-degree survey, we see great potential for employee development in this tool. In my opinion, the results of "360 degrees" inspire more confidence in people than, say, the data of the assessment center. After the evaluation center, a person can easily dismiss feedback if it does not suit him - they say, the observers see him for the first time and have misinterpreted everything. But if the feedback comes from the immediate environment, people willy-nilly listen. In my previous companies, not a single employee has ever said that he received low scores on "360 degrees" and strongly disagree with them.

Feedback from others can really push a person to work on himself. In my practice, there was a case when a company conducted a simplified assessment of managers: a list of all managers was posted on the portal, and employees were asked to put pluses and minuses on everyone they could somehow evaluate. The manager with the most downvotes was very depressed and came to me for advice. I recommended that he talk to people, collect as many facts as possible and draw conclusions. I think he did just that.

It's also a good idea for leaders to occasionally share their feedback, both positive and negative, with colleagues (although a lot depends on the company's culture and level of maturity). Thus, they will send a signal to their environment that there are no ideal professionals, the main thing is to draw conclusions from their own mistakes.”

Yulia Krylova, Head of Career Development at Sberbank:

“Constant and timely feedback at Sberbank is one of the priorities in the development and improvement of professional, personal and managerial qualities. The importance of feedback was repeatedly emphasized by the President, Chairman of the Board of Sberbank German Gref.

Our HR cycle includes various stages of work with employees from-hire-to-retire (from hiring to firing). Each manager meets quarterly with subordinates to sum up intermediate results and provide feedback - this is an assessment of performance and manifestation of value competencies in work (“I am a leader”, “We are a team”, “Everything for the client”). Based on the results of these meetings, the employee supplements or corrects his individual development plan.

For senior managers (about 800 people), we annually conduct a 360 degree procedure. Almost 12,000 people are involved in the evaluation process, including managers at various levels and clients. The results are presented to management teams in a group format, as well as to top executives in an individual conversation.

And, of course, we annually sum up the results of the work of managers. We evaluate the actual achievement of goals, discuss successes, reasons for deviations from the intended goals, determine the strengths and growth areas of each leader. This procedure - personnel commission - covers all categories of management from the line to the top level. In 2015, more than 20,000 managers throughout Russia took part in the work of personnel commissions. Based on the results of the work, we identify potential candidates for the personnel reserve, as well as form a pool of employees whose development requires additional attention. The results of the work of the personnel commission are reported to employees by their immediate supervisors.

After receiving feedback, people decide how to develop further. There are online courses available for this. There is also a unique course on drawing up a development plan - it is tied to a competency model and allows you to select training events from an extensive library of courses, trainings, programs of training centers and the corporate university of Sberbank, that is, any employee can create a comprehensive development program for himself with a few clicks of the mouse.

We place the results of the assessment of the competencies of our line managers and top managers in the SAP system - the information is available to the immediate supervisor, as well as functional and cross-functional managers. This helps us form highly productive management teams to meet the new challenges facing the bank. We also organize 360 ​​degree team sessions where leaders discuss their development priorities (both individual and team). And now Sberbank is choosing a unified IT platform for managing employee careers - in this system, managers will have access to all information about employee grades, including 360-degree results.”

Feedback(feedback) - information that the employee receives about how the manager perceives and evaluates his actions.

Why feedback is needed:

1. With its help, the leader manages the activities of his subordinates, that is, he encourages the desired behavior and limits the undesirable. Praising the employee, thereby he confirms the correctness of his actions, compliance with the plan, the ideas of the head. If it is necessary to change the actions of the subordinate, the leader gives corrective feedback. Thus, the main thing is achieved - the effectiveness of the actions of the subordinate is ensured.
2. Feedback performs a learning function. It allows the employee to find out what is expected of him, what are the criteria for evaluating his work, to what extent his actions correspond to the correct technology for performing work.
3. It performs a motivating function. The manager praises, encourages the employee and recognizes his achievements, thereby forming motivation for further work. With the help of corrective feedback, the leader forms the desire to correct the situation.
4. Providing detailed feedback is a manifestation of attention to the employee on the part of the manager, which has a beneficial effect on the relationship between people working together.

Thus, feedback is the most important component of such managerial processes as control, mentoring, motivation, and has a powerful potential as a tool of managerial influence. For this potential to be realized, the following conditions must be met. Feedback should be:

1. specific. The leader should not generalize and draw global conclusions such as: "You're always late for work", it's better to say . In feedback, it is necessary to operate with specific facts, and not general judgments.
2. About actions, not personality. Permissible statement "You're 15 minutes late today", but not "you are an undisciplined person". The act can be corrected, but the character is almost impossible to correct. Therefore, a person is ready to accept information about an act, but is not ready to accept that he is not such a person, and will defend himself, argue.
3. Timely. Feedback should be given immediately after an act that you want to encourage or change. This is also called the “hot stove rule” (if you touch it, it burns immediately, not later).
4. Developing. One of the tasks of feedback is to develop the employee's ability to introspection, to independently highlight their successes and shortcomings, and to correctly search for their causes. To do this, the manager uses open ones, helping the subordinate to formulate the correct conclusions about his work himself. Independently drawn conclusions are accepted and remembered much better than those said by another person.
5. Adapted. All people are different in terms of sensitivity to criticism, readiness for self-development. The manager needs to adapt his feedback to the level of understanding of his subordinates: do not immediately give a lot of corrective information if a person is able to understand and implement only a part.

There are several models for structuring feedback, of which the following are the most commonly used:

1. "The Sandwich Rule". Feedback is provided according to the structure "Positive - Corrective - Positive". Such a structure is necessary for those employees who may not be emotionally ready to accept the need to adjust their actions. So that the employee does not take a defensive position in communication with the manager, feedback begins and ends with positive moments in his activity (achievements, successes, strengths).

…In one of the companies, the supervisor had a tough, hard-hitting conversation with a sales representative about the unconvincing dynamics of the implementation of planned targets. At the end of the conversation, suddenly remembering the “sandwich rule”, the supervisor lowered his voice and said: “Well, in general, you are great, in retail outlets, customers speak well of you. Go to work". To which the sales representative, leaving, plaintively remarked: “Uncle Fyodor, your sandwich is somehow wrong ...”

1. Model BOFF (Behavior - Outcome - Feelings - Future), in the Russian version of PRCHB (Behavior - Result - Feelings - Future). First, the manager describes the behavior of the employee and the result to which this behavior led. Further enhances the emotional impact, mentioning the feelings that he (or the employee’s colleagues, the employee himself, other persons) experience about this. The feedback ends with a description of the desired behavior that the employee must demonstrate in the future. The model is used if the manager has doubts that the usual feedback will be effective for this employee.
2. SOR model (Standard - Observation - Result, Standard - Observation - Result). Designed to orient the employee to the correct technology of action. First, the manager reminds the employee of the existing actions in the company, then discusses with the employee his observations about his behavior, achieves an understanding by the employee of the results that his behavior can lead to and achieves the employee’s readiness to continue to comply.

In addition to the ability to provide feedback, you also need to learn yourself and teach your subordinates to receive it correctly. To do this, it is important to follow a few rules:

1. When receiving feedback, do not make excuses, avoid being defensive.
2. Ask questions for clarity, ask for examples of behavior, summarize the information received and get confirmation that you understood it correctly.
3. Thanks for the feedback.
4. Make an action plan on what can be improved and how.

In the field of FMCG, much attention has traditionally been paid to the observance by managers of the rules for providing and receiving feedback, which can be enshrined in, and a number of other processes. For example, one of the functions of the meeting is summing up, i.e. providing feedback to the team, which should also be carried out taking into account the rules described above. This means that during the meeting, he must operate with specific, relevant figures and facts (the rules of "specificity", "timeliness"), start with the positive and achievements of the team (the "sandwich" rule), focus on what needs to be improved today ( adaptability rule. At the same time, he should never "arrange a dressing down" for individual subordinates in the presence of others, that is, it is necessary to praise in public, but to criticize one by one.

The ability to communicate with subordinates and give feedback is traditionally referred to as the main skills of a professional manager. Any leader should be able to talk to an employee at the right time. And it seems to be, what is easier - called and talked. Specifically and to the point. Praised. Criticized. Set tasks. No problem!

However, in practice, things are not so rosy. Surveys that I conducted in several dozen companies showed that feedback is most often felt by employees as a problem area in relations with the manager.

“He called me and said that I had a bonus. And handed over a letter, which said that the award for the excellent implementation of the project. The money was very helpful, but I wanted to hear words of gratitude from my boss.”

“We start every morning with a scream. The door swings open, and the chief from his office begins to arrange a "dressing" for everyone in turn. They used to worry, but now they are used to it. It does not affect the work in any way. He will take the soul, and we continue to work.”

“She is not at all interested in how my work is going. Gives assignments, mostly by email. I am doing. It feels like I’m working in another city, although her office is ten meters from my desk.”

The value of feedback

The need for feedback is natural for any person, be it a top manager or an ordinary employee. Am I doing what the company needs? Right or wrong? Are my efforts recognized? The lack of feedback, as well as a gross violation of the rules for its submission, deprives a person of guidelines in the organization and reduces his desire to work. For a manager, feedback is a tool that allows you to:

• express recognition to the employee and support his high motivation;
• understand the reasons for undesirable employee behavior;
• correct employee behavior that deviates from standards;
• direct the employee to development in a specific direction.

Seven Rules for Quality Feedback

Are you going to talk to an employee, “want it to work”? Then start with goals! Understand what result you want to get from a conversation with an employee. Then it will be much easier to properly build a conversation. Regardless of the purpose of the conversation, it is useful to observe the following rules:

1. Talk about a specific event. “You showed up at work at 10:45 today. This is the second time in a week, let's talk about it." There is an event, and there is a topic for discussion. And if so: “You always sleep until eleven and are constantly late”? Generalization, generalization is a favorite technique of manipulators and the eternal theme of conflicts. Not good for quality feedback.
2. Give feedback shortly after the event you are discussing with the employee. Road spoon to dinner. “You worked with this VIP Client today. Let's see what happened this time." Compare: “Remember, about two months ago you served a VIP client” Let's see what mistake you made there. How does it say? Who remembers the old?
3. Use Confirmed Specific Facts. “I noticed that you did not use the new questionnaire when working with this Client.” What does the employee hear? The manager carefully observed the work, noticed and remembered - this is important for him! And if so: “They say you completely stopped using questionnaires”? There will be no constructive conversation. There will be a game of attack and defense. And that's not what a leader needs.
4. Involve the employee in the discussion - let them speak.“What do you think a Customer who wanted to place an urgent order, but could not get through to us at 9:30, would do.” What can be done to prevent the recurrence of such situations? Let him say. Firstly, this is a good way to stimulate the employee's independent thinking on the topic under discussion and his responsibility for the decisions that you agree on during the discussion. Secondly, without giving the word to the employee, you can deprive yourself of important information and even get into an awkward position. I witnessed a situation where the boss scolded an employee for violating the deadlines for submitting a regular report - it turned out that he missed that two days earlier a new procedure was sent to the organization that changed not only the deadlines, but also the reporting format: data was now entered into a centralized system. The employee began to act according to the new instructions. So there is no scolding, but it was necessary to praise.
5. Discuss events and activities. Not a person. Sticking a label on a person is a matter of minutes. “You are selfish! You only think about yourself!?" Say this to an employee a couple of times - and you can no longer expect help, mutual assistance and the desire for teamwork from him. After all, he is an egoist, and you elevated him to this rank by the power given to you. Someone will be offended and withdraw into himself. Someone will turn into your opponent. And someone will start to turn other members of the team against you. Personality is a delicate matter, don't mess with it! Find other words: “I appreciate your desire to use every opportunity to work with the Client. However, there must be reasonable limits. Think about what image among the Clients your actions can create for our company?”
6. Talk about what can be changed. This applies to those situations when you target an employee to correct behavior and develop skills. H will work: “Yes, I see that we have a problem, with such a quiet voice it is difficult to win over the Clients.” What were we thinking when we hired this employee? Uh, brother, now you have to help her! “If you sit on this side, the Clients will hear you better, let's try. By the way, can we think about a microphone?
7. You can praise in public, but it is better to criticize face to face. There are several reasons. Public criticism is very demotivating. Once. We have strong traditions in Russia to support the offended. So do not be surprised if, after a public reprimand, your allies will decrease in the team. Two. If you are wrong (this may be, see above in paragraph 4), you will be wrong for everyone. Do you need it? Three. Praise is another matter. And this is a whole art! “Of course, it’s good that you reassured the Client so quickly, but why didn’t you tell about the new product”? Is this praise or criticism? Not very clear. “You managed to calm the client down so quickly - share the secret of how you do it?” And this is so much better! They praised, made a compliment, raised self-esteem and motivation. Which is what was required.

Once you start using these rules, you will notice how much more productive your meetings with employees have become.

FEEDBACK FROM THE MANAGER TO THE SUBJECTS
Zeltserman K.B.
Office file #85 February 2006

A well-coordinated tandem "manager - subordinate" is the key to the success of many things in the company. And good leaders know how to organize this coherence. A constructive dialogue helps to remove all misunderstandings and disagreements between the leader and his subordinates. One of the components of such a dialogue is feedback from the leader to the subordinate. A leader who does not talk to employees, does not use feedback tools, will no longer understand what his subordinates think and feel and may miss a critical moment and the situation will get out of hand. In this article, we will talk about what feedback is, how to properly organize a “feedback session”, where it is important and how to effectively apply it to a manager.

What is feedback to subordinates?

Feedback to a subordinate is the voicing of a reaction to certain actions of an employee. Why is this needed? First, it is a simple display of attention, which, as various studies show, often has a beneficial effect on the relationship between people working together. Secondly, timely feedback allows for preventive, preventive work on the employee's mistakes. Thirdly, feedback has a motivating function, it allows the employee to find out what is expected of him and what are the criteria for evaluating his work. And, most importantly, feedback allows you to achieve the desired results from the employee.

Feedback shows the employee how his work is evaluated. Therefore, not only a direct (oral or written) assessment of an employee's performance can be considered as feedback, but also various incentive tools as an indirect assessment tool.

These indirect instruments include:

• thanks or accolades
• rewards or deductions
• promotion or demotion

All these tools show the employee whether his work is generally assessed as good or bad. However, sometimes it can be difficult for a subordinate to figure out what exactly he was rewarded or punished for. Therefore, feedback is effective only when the manager explains in detail to the employee what is good and what is not very good in his work. Therefore, the most effective feedback tool is a conversation between a manager and a subordinate, when the subordinate not only learns about the assessment of his work, but also has the opportunity to ask questions and clarify incomprehensible points.

There are various situations in working life when the use of feedback is not only appropriate, but also necessary, such types of feedback include:

1. Feedback, as an assessment of the current activities of the employee.
2. Feedback on employee suggestions.
3. Feedback on employee plans and reports.
4. Feedback about the attitude of the employee to what is happening in the company.

Let's dwell on the above points in more detail.

« Execution cannot be pardoned” or feedback, as an assessment of the current activities of the employee.

This type of feedback is the most commonly encountered by managers. Evaluation of an employee's performance occurs almost always when a manager accepts the work of a subordinate. And since the manager is directly interested in improving the performance of the employee, simply assessing the categories “Good” or “Bad” is not enough. You need a rationale for where it is good, why it is bad and how it should be corrected.

Studies confirm that when analyzing the behavior of other people, the majority overestimate the influence of a person's nature and his personal capabilities and underestimate the influence of the specific circumstances in which his real activity takes place. For example, the manager is likely to attribute the reason for the unproductive work of a subordinate to the lack of personal capabilities of the employee, and not to the current situation at his workplace. This phenomenon is known as the fundamental attribution error. That is why it is very important, when evaluating an employee, to talk with him, finding out his situation, in what context of events he was, and what influenced the results presented by him, etc. It is this approach that will allow you to avoid mistakes in assessing the work of an employee and be objective.

Purpose of feedback on current activities: evaluate the work of the employee, show what has been done well and it is necessary to do the same in the future, isolate the shortcomings and discuss ways to correct them. In addition, it is important to show the employee the significance of his work for the company, to motivate him.

Basic rule: Feedback should be constructive and factual.

You can’t turn feedback into scolding or praising an employee: “What a great fellow you are!” or “Well, you give, who does that!”. Feedback ideally should contain the highlighting of the strengths in the activities, behavior of the employee and weaknesses - places that require correction, reserves in the improvement of the employee.

“I shout, and in response - silence!” or Feedback on employee suggestions

From time to time, enterprising employees come to managers with their suggestions for improving the way they work or the situation in the company. It is very important to support such initiatives, to demonstrate that such behavior is welcome (even if the proposals themselves, for some reason, are not accepted).

Employees made a lot of suggestions on how best to build a non-material motivation system and were looking forward to seeing how their proposals would be translated into reality. The approval of the document lasted three weeks, the employees "caught" the leader in order to make their proposals again and again. However, the changes proposed by the staff were not made. All sorts of rumors, speculation, discontent spread throughout the company. Only the speech of the head explaining why the proposals of employees cannot be used at the present time, removed the tense situation in the company. However, further suggestions from the manager to discuss something in the company were met with “interrogations” in the style of “what can we expect?”.

Goals:

• To support an initiative that contributes to the development of the company and its employees.
• Preservation of optimal, working tools, systems, traditions; increasing their importance in the eyes of the employee.
• Increasing the motivation of the employee / the formation of an adequate self-esteem of the employee.

Basic rule: If you are collecting employee suggestions, then you need to give feedback on all of them and take at least some action to show employees that the situation is changing or explain why their proposals are not accepted and nothing is changing yet.

After two or three proposals left without any attention, the employees give up. The absence of a "corrective" component of feedback on the proposal or initiative of the employee leads to the fact that a sensible proposal may be missed, or vice versa, the employee will consider himself a "super-hero", although his proposal is not adequate to the needs, strategy and values ​​of the company.

Conversations with the provision of feedback are held as suggestions are received from employees. Depending on the complexity, strategic significance of the proposal (for example, a proposal to issue corporate pens, this is not at all the same as a proposal to develop a new motivation system or, moreover, open a new line of business) and the elaboration of the proposal (voiced idea, pre-collected information, or a ready-made business -plan), its discussion can take from 5 minutes to 1 hour. In rare cases, well-researched but highly ambitious or non-trivial strategic proposals can take up to 2 hours to discuss.

In preparing for such a conversation, the leader should:

• Examine the employee's proposal (written document, conversation).
• As a first approximation, evaluate it: relevance, novelty, timeliness, necessity, adequacy, etc.
• Make a decision and prepare arguments for refusal or, conversely, give the go-ahead to the employee and determine what needs to be further developed.

If the employee himself does not say something, then you need to ask leading questions. It is important that the employee speaks all of the above himself, then he will be more realistic and critical about his proposal.

Feedback on the employee's proposal should be built as follows:

1. What is interesting, well thought out, presented
2. What and where can be improved
3. Dot the "i" in terms of relevance, feasibility, adequacy, etc.
4. Issue a general verdict: accepted / not accepted; now / after a certain period of time.
5. Agree on next steps.

« Just because I didn't say anything doesn't mean I don't appreciate your work. » or Feedback on employee plans and reports

Feedback is present where there is control. The manager must control the implementation of plans by employees, but before control, this plan must first be discussed and approved. This can and should be done using feedback.

Feedback on the discussion of the employee's plans

Feedback on the plans is provided to the employee as often as the plans themselves are prepared. It is better to discuss weekly plans, for example, sales managers every week (5-10 minutes): for control, motivation, prioritization. And monthly plans are discussed, respectively, every month.

The structure of the meeting to discuss and approve the plan can have two scenarios. In the first case, if everything in the plan suits you, you need to inform the employee about this, and if he has questions or needs to discuss some important details, help him.

If the presented plan requires adjustment, then the manager needs to decide:

• That he gets tired in this regard and can be left.
• Clearly decide what exactly does not suit the plan and needs to be changed, finalized (for example, the formulation or setting of goals, measures to achieve them, prioritization, availability of indicators and deadlines).
• Then the leader must initiate a discussion on issues that cause difficulties for the employee, or suggest sources of information, set the direction of “thoughts”.
• Agree on the timing of the submission of the revised plan.

Feedback on discussing employee reports

Reports should not be a bureaucratic atavism, at least they should not be perceived as such by employees. Yes, indeed, the manager does not always have time to talk in detail about the report with the employee, but simply “collecting them on your desk or in the closet” is also not the case. Moreover, if the employee “having reported” does not hear anything in response, he may decide that “everything is bad”, even if he is a very good employee, or vice versa, that “everything is fine”. The minimum that should be done is to notify the employee that the report has been successfully accepted, to note the most outstanding achievements and achievements of the employee.

If the report requires adjustment, then feedback on the employee's report is given according to the following scheme:

• The manager tells the employee that he is tired of the work done during the reporting period, which was done well.
• The manager tells the employee what he is not satisfied with and needs to be changed (what goals, indicators have not been achieved; what tasks have been prioritized incorrectly; where deadlines have been missed; where the quality of work is not satisfied; level of responsibility, initiatives, etc.)
• The manager discusses with the employee what is the reason that he did not complete this or that task (not qualitatively; not on time, etc.); what helps, what hinders in solving the tasks; how he will correct the situation, achieve his goals; what will he do in the future so as not to repeat such mistakes, situations.
• The manager sets priorities in solving problems, misses of the employee.

After providing primary feedback on plans and reports, the manager and subordinate need to do a few more:

• The employee corrects or supplements the plan or report, taking into account the feedback from the manager.
• The manager studies the corrected documents.
• The manager provides final feedback (written or verbal) to the subordinate.

Feedback on the attitude of the employee to what is happening in the company (changes and innovations)

Target: to avoid misunderstanding by the staff of the tasks assigned to them, the strategy and corporate values ​​of the company.

Usually, in order to implement changes in companies, employees are informed. "We have decided to live in a new way." In order for the changes to be implemented the least painlessly (as you know, not everyone wants to change), it is very important to ask employees what they think about this, what concerns and objections they have. For these purposes, they use employee surveys, the "suggestion box" method, personal conversations with employees. As in the situation with the proposals of employees, in no case should the concerns of employees be ignored. Thus, feedback to employees should include:

1. “Joining” to the situation of employees “I understand that the upcoming changes bring a lot of new things for all of us and …………”
2. Praise employees for justified concerns and named risks “It is very good that you have noticed that this will change in this situation, and we will have to ………”
3. "Dispelling Myths". Next, you should answer the objections of employees known to the manager, while giving additional information, because, as you know, the roots of almost all objections lie precisely in the lack of information.

In conclusion, let's outline the basic rules for providing feedback:

1. Feedback must be! You should not hope that the employee himself will understand everything just by the look of the head or meaningful silence.
2. Feedback must be timely. It makes no sense to discuss a year later that “that project was failed because of you, because you then provided the wrong data and did not deign to check it. Of course, we didn’t tell you, because you wouldn’t have had time to fix anything anyway ... "
3. Feedback should be both positive (for good - to praise) and negative (for bad - to scold). But even when giving negative feedback, it is important to find something to praise the employee for. And you need to start with an assessment of what is good in the work of an employee.
4. When providing feedback, it is important not to get personal (“how badly you did, because you are lazy and mediocre”), but to talk about actions (“I evaluate your work badly, because the deadlines were violated and the information was presented haphazardly, unstructured”).
5. To be constructive, feedback should be more specific. Contain facts, not opinions or generalities. Not “I have the impression that you have begun to work without enthusiasm,” but “I observe that you have stopped making suggestions.”
6. To give effective feedback to a conversation with a subordinate, you need to prepare.
7. No need to immediately expect that immediately after the feedback everything will change dramatically “I told you yesterday!”. Unfortunately, the feedback session doesn't work like a magic wand. Change is a long and complex process, sometimes it is necessary to repeat many times and the same thing, because the habits of doing something in a certain way go away only with time and with the right reinforcement of the desired behavior.

Providing feedback to subordinates is one of the most powerful HR tools. If the feedback is organized correctly and systematically, then this allows the subordinate to achieve a positive attitude towards comments addressed to him, understanding and acceptance of criticism, as well as a willingness to correct shortcomings. Subordinate, ready and striving to correct his shortcomings, isn't such an employee the dream of any leader?