| | | | | | Alexandra Reese's Growth Guide | | Timely leadership insights to accelerate your growth & impact | | | |
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This week, you’ll learn how to diagnose a feedback problem in your organization and what to do about it! This is a deep dive into one facet of last week’s edition, Make Performance Management Your Unfair Advantage.
| | | | | | Many organizations stopped doing performance management during covid. Now, they’re bringing performance management back. So, I’ve been facilitating a lot of organizational assessments and performance reviews over the past year. And I’ve noticed a troubling trend: | | Many leaders are shockingly unaware of what's happening in their organizations | | And when you look at the data on feedback and engagement, it makes perfect sense:
If feedback is a two-way street, then there’s a giant accident blocking both lanes of traffic. Employees aren’t getting the feedback they need to feel recognized, valued, and supported to improve. And leaders aren’t getting the feedback they need to make smart decisions to improve the health of the organization. | | Here are eight signs you have a feedback problem too: | | - You only receive feedback from people directly above and below you
- You have little insight into how people view their managers
- Recognition is not a daily habit across the organization
- You’re often surprised by exit interview results
- You haven’t done a 360 assessment in years
- You rarely receive unsolicited feedback
- You don’t trust your team to work remotely
- You can't name the top priorities of your people
| | | | To get feedback flowing, focus on culture | | The data show that people want to get and receive more and better feedback. So, it’s not a desire problem. It’s a culture problem.
People must feel safe giving and receiving feedback. They must have the skill and ability, which takes work to develop. And they must know how to do it in a culturally-appropriate way, a challenge given the relatively short-tenure of most employees. | | A culture of feedback has four elements | | | | | | Get started with these three steps: | | 1. Amp-up recognition
Recognition is your most powerful feedback tool, as it’s the most effective at reinforcing expectations. Science shows that positive reinforcement can have a more powerful influence on behavior than corrective feedback or punishment.
It also pays dividends is psychological safety, engagement, and retention. According to Gallup, employees who receive effective recognition are:
2. Follow-through Most organizations conducted a host of listening sessions, pulse surveys, and interviews during covid to get feedback on the wellbeing and engagement of their people. But only 40% of organizations followed through on what they heard with meaningful action. When you don’t follow-through on what you hear, your engagement activities will do more harm than good. In the short term, you’ll lose credibility and trust. Over the long term, employees will stop offering feedback and simply disengage or quit when things go south. If follow-through is so important, why don’t all leaders do it? Because they mistakenly think it means taking action to address what you hear, and that’s not always feasible. So, they avoid closing the loop for fear of disappointing their people. The fact is, follow-through can be simple. Focus on active listening to demonstrate you value and care about your people by recapping: - Here’s what we asked
- Here’s what we heard
- Here’s what we’re doing
And, if you can’t take action to address specific concerns, a short explanation for the decision will suffice.
3. Set expectations Fair, actionable, and pain-free feedback begins with clear expectations. Each team and individual should have clear performance expectations. And the organization as a whole should have clear behavioral expectations. These expectations should serve as the foundation for all feedback. The start of the new year is the perfect time to clarify expectations. If you’d like to read more on this topic, I recommend you check-out my last Growth Guide edition on performance management. | | | |
At this point, you probably have a good sense for the health of your feedback culture. If you’re feeling confident, congratulations! I’d love to hear from you, so I can share your story in a future edition. If you’re worried, please feel free to reach out. I’m here for you.
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| | | | | | | | | | Here are links to the first seven editions: Nov 10: Make performance management your unfair advantage Oct: 1/ The four elements of a high-performing leadership team, 2/ Cultivate an empowered leadership mindset
Sep: 1/ Replan for Q4, 2/ Jumpstart growth through self-awareness, 3/ Three Qs to save you BIG in your next strategy process Aug: 1/ Adapt your strategy process, 2/ Support your mid-level managers, 3/ Halt your mid-career crisis Jul: 1/ Win with values, 2/ How to get hybrid work right, 3/ Vacation like a European Jun: 1/ The mid-year review, 2/ Sharpen your creative skills, 3/ Win through failure May: 1/ Prepare for downturns; 2/ Better, faster decisions; 3/ Embrace difference to improve performance Apr: 1/ The Q1 review, 2/ Prime yourself for success, 3/ Focus your innovation investments for impact
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