As part of a recent Advanced Business Leadership program, we conducted a breakout session on the 
challenges of providing feedback in today’s turbulent business environment. With so many companies implementing flatter more matrixed organizations, a team, project, or process leader could have dozens of employees working together without clear and distinct lines of reporting. In these situations, the focus is always solely on the work and rarely on people's development.
During our breakout session, participants were asked to identify the most unique coaching challenges they are facing so we could apply new skills and tools that will help them become more effective leaders.
We were able to identify several interesting situations, but one really stood out, so we processed it for learning purposes. The learner shared the following story:
“I recently inherited a small team of scientific engineers from another division and added them to my team. I went from 7 direct reports to 10 which was fine because my original core team was highly productive. After about a month, it was painfully obvious that the three engineers I inherited were very different. Their behaviors, attitudes, work habits, and entire approach to the business were not aligned with the business strategy of our company and their methods seemed out of date. I started to meet with them individually to get a sense of what was going on. My hypothesis was that this was a simple case of a rogue group of engineers doing things their way and all I had to do was reel them in a bit.
Unfortunately, my hypothesis wasn’t correct. In our dialogue, I discovered that the three engineers thought their performance was excellent and that they were elite performers. It turns out that their previous manager was uncomfortable providing developmental feedback and only focused on the positive, and in some cases was just lifting up key metrics of success that were not aligned with the strategy of the company. For example, there was an incentive for the engineers to support sales calls. The previous manager was just praising them for their “participation” in the number of meetings attended, not the amount of business that was closing. Unfortunately for this group, new business was not being closed from meetings at the same rates compared with other departments. When we talked about being more aligned with the business outcomes, reviewed recommendations from the sales team, and discussed their overall performance, they were surprised because they didn’t have the data and were never provided with hard feedback on performance from the sales calls”
The more we processed this story, the more we began to wonder how many leaders are out there who are not providing balanced feedback. What is the long-term impact on employees who need balanced feedback? What is the lasting effect on the organization that is creating a new generation of individual contributors and future leaders who are not aligned and continue to underperform if they have never been told otherwise?
Is Your Feedback Balanced?
If you are thinking to yourself that you can stop reading this blog because this doesn’t refer to you, I urge you to give me a few more minutes. I started to call, text, and email some of the leaders that I respect the most to ask them about this interesting situation. I was able to speak with four of them and what I discovered surprised me. More and more, leaders are avoiding providing developmental feedback. Please note that I call it developmental and not “negative” because when done correctly, it should improve performance. The reasons I heard for not providing developmental feedback included:
- Not enough time
- The emotional energy is not worth it
- They won’t care anyway
- Trying to keep it all positive and avoid the negative vibe
Based on this interesting dialogue, you need to ask yourself a very basic question; “Is your feedback balanced?”
Ideas for Action
Here are a few quick ideas that you can take action on:
Conduct a Feedback Audit – Review your notes from the last few feedback sessions you’ve conducted. What’s the mix of positive vs. developmental feedback? For a strong performer, I would suggest that the number should be at about 10%-15% developmental, and for an under-performer, it should be about 50%. As a side note, if it’s more than 50%, then you have bigger issues.
Practice Your Feedback Skills – Look for opportunities to role-play and practice your skills. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will feel.
Ask for Feedback on Your Feedback – Ask your direct reports to give you feedback on your feedback. Ask them if they think it’s balanced and if they feel they are getting the right balance for their needs.
