360 Feedback Blog

Why is feedback so hard?

Feedback is probably one of the most valuable but least used managerial tools we have to helpe people perform better. The problem is that managers hate giving ‘bad news’ and employees hate hearing it. It’s an emotional struggle for both sides. Some tips for making feedback a bit less painful:

* Give good feedback more often than ‘bad’ feedback

* Make your feedback specific, not ‘you did a great job’, but ‘your meeting preparation meant that we were fully prepared for the negotiatio, which helped us win the work’

* As a manager, ask for ‘reverse feedback’ from your team; what should you do differently to be a better manager?

*Make 360 Degree Feedback part of your regular performance reviews and discussions.

Here’s a link to an article I wrote for HR Zone,  on how we helped an international law firm to optimise partners’ performance using 360 Degree Feedback.

In this article in Personnel Today, I’ve set out some guidelines for making performance appraisal less scary, more fun and just as effective. 

This is a really interesting article and summarises the thinking about performance management that’s going on in a lot of organisations right now, both public and private.To make cascading work successfully, we’ve found that you need to:-         

• Have clear outcomes and outputs
• Set clear guidelines not just for what needs to be achieved, but for how these goals will be achieved
• Make sure that line managers at each level are clear how their departmental goals are linked to the overall organisation’s goals
• Train line managers to help their teams set the right goals for both individuals and teams, especially if team performance is important and rewarded
• Keep the system really simple – regular goal review and feedback by line managers and their reports are the most effective way to improve employee performance
• Incorporate multi-source and 360 Degree Feedback somewhere along the performance process as it can add a level of information and awareness that supports the cascading of goals

Click here for my article in HR Magazine, on Adaptability, why it’s important, and how you can measure it.

In this great article, the writer explains the physiology behind how we listen and how we interpret what we hear.  It’s certainly hard to stand back and listen objectively, and we can be very selective with what we hear, and what we do about it.

People can made immediate assumptions about what they think you’re telling them, and respond less than positively.

Good listening skills are a critical skill set that successful leaders, managers and influencers all demonstrate frequently or almost  all the time.They’re also one of the key skills that, with a bit of work, can complement and enhance someone who’s already got a broad range of good management or leadership skills.  A good way to become a better listener is to ask your colleagues to tell you each time they catch you not listening for what they’re trying to tell you, or ignoring their messages.  Becoming aware of this habit through feedback can help you to change and improve those critical skills.

In this article, the writer thinks teams could give fun feedback to each other as a way of starting conversations and improving relationships.

Whilst we think it’s a fun idea, we think it would be even better if the team were able to give some written thoughts, in a structured way, about what it’s like to work in that team - not specifying any individuals, but how it feels, if it’s generally a positive experience, how the team deals with problems, conflicts and team members who don’t pull their weight.

An added dimension would be to include external feedback from the team’s colleagues and clients - it would be very useful for the team to understand how it’s viewed from the outside.

 Team Works from Track Surveys is a pre-designed 360 Degree Feedback that can be delivered online and customised for each team or organisation’s profile.

Following on from my last blog, Lloyds Bank have announced that the CEO, António Horta-Osório, has taken leave of absence due to overwork.  Consequently Lloyds shares have fallen by 10% in value.

You can vote here on whether you support him or not: Do you feel sympathetic towards António Horta-Osório?

When I voted an hour ago, the vote was split almost equally between sympathy and ‘he gets paid enough to take it’.

Whether you do feel sympathy for him or not, it’s a good illustration how overwork and stress can take their toll on people at any level in an organisation.  Arguably the higher you are, the more stressful your job will be.  Other circumstances can of course also have an influence on how bad the effect of a stressful job will be.  Things like health problems and domestic and family issues can all create the situation where a challenging and healthy job can turn into a stressful and unmanageable nightmare.

Companies in every sector need to address the issue as a matter of urgency.  The starting point is knowing what the general stress points in the organisation are likely to be (they can be different in different organisations), what the overall levels of (negative) stress are, and then being able to identify stress at an individual level and offer help and support before it becomes a problem.

For more information on measuring stress levels in your organisation, contact us on +44 20 7206 7279.

Go to Climate Check to find out how we can help you measure stress and other critical factors in your organisation.

In this recent article from Personnel Today, the results of a survey on the causes of employee sickness absence are eye-opening.

33% of companies who responded said that stress was the most common cause of absence for non-manual workers.

This represents 1 in 3 employees and is something that no organisation can afford right now.

The first step in dealing with work-place stress is to understand what the stress points are for people in the organisation - every organisation is different and its staff will be subject to particular stress points.  An anonymous survey can be a very useful first step in measuring how people are feeling, and where the stress points may be worst.

Training for managers in spotting signs of stress is very important too, as they have the most influence over individual employees’ day to day working conditions. 

A personal stress indicator tool that an employee can access online to test their own levels of stress can be added as part of the stress ‘awareness’ toolkit for the organisation.  It can also provides anonymised but critical data on stress levels and can allow the organisation to monitor this very important area on an ongoing basis.

Find out more about Track’s Climate Check tool to support stress management in your organistion.

In this article from US Website Above the Law, the writer makes the case for using 360 Degree Feedback in legal firms.

He lists the common concerns in law firms and the reasons why they might be reluctant to use 360 Degree Feedback, such as concerns about anonymity, and how a partner might react negatively to less than glowing feedback.

We have designed and delivered 360 Degree Feedback in a number of leading law firms here in the UK, and our clients can testify to the benefits of 360 Degree Feedback - even for partners!

The keys to success in using 360 in legal firms are:

• Buy-in from the partners: this means gaining real commitment to the 360 by demonstrating that it is a useful tool for them, not just another HR tick-box exercise
• Incoporate their 360 feedback into their development plans, which in turn feed into the partner’s performance appraisal.  This makes a clear connection with something that is critical for them
• Managing Partner sponsorship: we have found that unless the MP is i) willing to provide some feedback to the partners and ii) visibly interested in the outcomes, partners will tend to be lukewarm about the whole thing
• Providing partners or associates with some specific coaching that relates to their 360 Degree Feedback.  Initially the coaching discussion covers the feedback and the interpretation of the key messages that it’s delivering.
  A further coaching discussion two or three weeks down the line helps the partner or associate to be able to have assimilated the messages and then incorporated these into their action and/or development plan.

In our experience, careful design and planning can make 360 Degree Feedbackjust as valuable in a legal environment as in a corporate one.

For more information, visit Empower Legal 360.