Is Your Message Understood?

Last year I wrote a post about the appropriateness of feedback.  It talked about the purpose of giving feedback. Once you get this right however, how to you ensure it is effective and therefore understood.

How many times have you given feedback which has seemed to go well only to find shock and surprise the next time it comes up in discussion. It is also worth remembering that, in my experience, the seriousness of the feedback is directly proportional to the potential misunderstanding.  So you need to get it right.

Also, remember that giving feedback is hard, so others are unlikely to giving this exact same honest and constructive feedback. This will be confusing to the employee and they will be trying to reconcile the difference of views in their head. You must be clear in your message to ensure that they don't just choose to believe the contrary (easier) feedback rather than yours.

So how do you do this?

1. Clarify and Confirm
In the world of change management (in this case individual change) you need to expect to confirm the feedback 5 to 7 times in order for something it to be understood (Prosci).  Don't assume that it was taken in the first time.Repeat, revisit, clarify and continue to give examples as they occur.

2. Increase the Quality of the Feedback
I've seen something similar in the past but the ICO concisely state that good communication is:

• "Defined as two-way, appropriate to the audience, medium and message, and is in correct, clear language. 
• Honest, relevant, timely, appropriate, useful, inclusive and authoritative."

Make sure that you are giving the feedback as clear as you can.  Practice it if you have to but don't shirk from your responsibility of getting this bit right.

3. Check for Understanding
Check for active listening - Ask for them to confirm it back to you, in their own words.  This is a great way to see what they have heard.  Repeat the key message if you feel you didn't quite get the response you were hoping for.

4. Regular Reinforcement
If you don't follow it up, they won't think it was more than a passing viewpoint, even if it was thoroughly delivered at the time.  Take the time to refer back to it, either in positive changes you've seen or to reinforce continuing issues you are yet to see required improvements in.  Do this frequently to ensure the message is understood in that initial period of time.

If you find that things just don't work out then there are unlikely to be no surprises.  In many cases, if the employee has bought into the situation due to fully understanding the issue (they may not agree with it but they will understand the feedback), they may even resolve the situation themselves by finding other opportunities under their own steam.

However, on the positive side, an employee who does make the change is likely to respect and reflect positively on the experience (at least after the fact).  Don't also forget the influence that your action has on others.  They will see this action and it sets a powerful message that you and the team work towards a core value of improvement and high performance.

With all of this, you must prepare and have courage.  Nothing in life of any importance is easy.  Commit to it and reap the benefits.

Please see my website at www.managingforthefirsttime.com for more techniques, tips and advice on this topic and others.

Appropriateness of Feedback

This Sunday morning as I was sitting having breakfast and surfing the web on my iPad (I know; I should really put it down) when I started to read a comments trail which followed a researcher's open request on LinkedIn to complete their masters dissertation questionnaire.

I had responded to the request earlier in the week by completing the survey online. I feel it's right to support those that are asking for relatively free things from others (5 minutes of your time) especially if it's for student research (I was a student too looking for support).

I found that people were using the open forum comments section to criticise and denounce aspects of the survey they did not agree with. It staggered me as to how damaging this feedback was.

Feedback is supposed to be a gift

Usually I find that managers find it hard to give valuable and constructive (but often negative) feedback to support and develop their employees. I work hard to support them to have the management courage to ignore the short term uncomfortable situation in order to give this ultimately positively impacting feedback.

Here I found feedback being given but in entirely the wrong way. I could see it being taken in no other way than negatively, with no real support to help the individual improve. One of the biggest problems was that it was given in an open forum, hardly an environment where the individual would be focused on the feedback itself and learning from it, rather than worrying about what everyone else reading it would be thinking.

Would you walk up to one of your employees in the middle of the office and give them feedback in front of everyone else on what they did wrong and what you therefore thought of their work? Of course not.

That's the key message with feedback. 

It has to be given in a way that helps and directs the individual to make the improvement by promoting reflection and learning.  Anything other than that is scoring points against them. You may not mean it, but that's the impact.

Feedback is a gift but as the giver of it (the communicator), you have to responsibility to ensure you do it right.

Please see my website at www.managingforthefirsttime.com for more techniques, tips and advice on this topic and others.

(Photo by striatic via flickr used under a creative Commons Licence)

Reactions to Guidelines and Frameworks for Personal Development

There has been a lot of talk over the past week or two in the UK about the government's new five a day parenting guidelines.

A positive article from the BBC can be found here whilst a more scathing one from The Telegraph can be found here.

This has sparked a great debate about whether people should be told or even helped in the 'right' way to raise their child. On one side, the argument is that parents who don't know should be helped through guidelines and education. On the other, parents should be left to do the right thing for their child rather than a one size fits all approach.

Intervention

A lot of the debate is around the word 'intervention' (which I particularly dislike, but seems to have become the word of choice in training and development circles).

The 5 a day proponents say that this is not intervention anyway, merely proportional help and that without it further intervention may be inevitable later in life (schooling/social/criminal etc problems) if the parent fails in the role. The opponents clearly don't agree with intervention at an early stage.

So I guess the question is what does the parent need and how best to identify and then satisfy that development need. This same situation appears in the workplace all the time.

How do you help people to understand something that they might not currently even have awareness of?  Intervention is only intervention (assuming the negative connotation) when it be forced upon a person who already has awareness and have chosen to either develop in a certain and different way, or not at all, but with a rationale behind their choice.

Just a reference point?

I honestly can't see why guidance and a framework aren't a great place to start. Those with awareness can find their place in that framework and develop from there. Those with no awareness might just have their eyes opened to the possibility and pathway to develop. Surely that's a win-win and doesn't sound like a 'one size fits all' at all.

Those ready to fight it seem to want to fight whether it's right or not, whether it's needed or not.  They don't seem open to the idea that everyone can improve and be ready to ask themselves "where am I in this framework and do I need to do something to develop". Perhaps it's a fear thing, to analyse yourself.  Blame the framework, rather than focus on themselves and how best to use the information to their advantage.

I'm sure that you see this type of behaviour in the workplace all the time. People who think their way is the right way without referencing outside influences or new ideas. You must constantly challenge this with new ideas and external reference points. Challenge your team to be unafraid to constantly reassess.  The answer might be that they are in the right place already, but it's good to check.

There is nothing to fear and everything to gain. Try and help them understand that.

Please see my website at www.managingforthefirsttime.com for more techniques, tips and advice on this topic and others.