360 Feedback Blog

At the end of a recent episode of the Apprentice USA, Donald Trump, having pointed his pistol finger and fired the first candidate, concluded his remarks by saying ’she had to go…people don’t change’.

Is he right?  Are people just the way they are, or can they change their behaviours if they really want to?

I think DT has a point: the person he fired ignored all the feedback from the other candidates which was telling her that she didn’t listen and that she was a disruptive influence.  Her response was that people (especially women) were intimidated by her.  She would not, or could not, hear the feedback.  I have come across people like this and I don’t think they can change.  Because they don’t want to.

People who really want to change, though, will do so.  At an exreme level, you can see this in people who take on new religious beliefs in adult life can can often change their lives completely, and those of the people around them.  Maybe because their will to change is so profound and internalised…

As a people development professional I have also seen people take painful but ultimately successful journeys to change their behaviours.  I have reviewed my own behaviours at certain times in my life (after some 360 Degree Feedback) and made a decision to do some things differently.

What’s the view from people development professionals out there?  Can people really change?

In this article from Management Today the writer describes a common situation: someone who refuses to accept the feedback they have recieved from their colleagues.

I would say that this happens in every organisation that has people in it, i.e. every organisation!  It’s less about conflict and more that there is always a small percentage who do not accept feedback, either because of their own insecurity, their lack of trust in the feedback methodology, or lack of trust in their organisation.

1. People need to thoroughly understand how the 360 Degree Feedback is gathered and how the resulting scores are calculated. This is especially important for analytically-minded people who will tend to believe it more if they can understand the numbers!  Guaranteeing confidentiality is also important.

2. Each individual getting 360 degree feedback also needs to make a choice as to what in the feedback is important and relevant to them, and why, so help from their coach or mentor is important.

3.  Acceptance comes only after shock, denial, then questioning and understanding, very much like the response cycle to bad news or events.  You need to give people time to get through this cycle.  (Click here to download our guide on Helping People to Deal with Difficult Feedback).

4. Finally there is the ultimate choice: if the person totally refuses to listen to feedback and agree to change (’that’s just the way I am’), as an organisation, are you willing to continue to support and promote that person, and put them in charge of other people, despite their abrasive behaviour? That’s where organisations usually have the greatest difficulty, particularly if someone is a good revenue earner…

To many employees, managers and business owners, performance and 360 appraisals are a bureaucratic and time-consuming chore.  As people professionals we often find ourselves having to argue the case for Appraisal and its benefits.   An appraisal process of some kind is essential where you have people whose performance is going to be assessed for any reason – even in the smallest company, a consistent, clear appraisal is necessary.  This is because:

1. People need a clear understanding of their role, what they are expected to do as their key tasks (i.e. their goals), and the scope of their responsibilities

2. People then need to understand clearly how their performance is going to be assessed - how their training, pay and promotion is going to be affected by their performance

3. A consistent, transparent appraisal process ensures that as far as possible, people are being assessed on a consistent basis, on the things that they have agreed to be assessed on, and have a fair chance to put their case forward in a two-way discussion with their employing organisation.

 

There is in addition a strong business case for getting a good, customised appraisal in place.  

 

1. Although time needs to be spent in running the appraisal process, this will be less than the chaos of not having any guidance in place, where managers judge their people entirely on their personal preferences and assumptions.  A fair appraisal system makes people feel that they are being treated fairly and consistently – a key indicator of employee engagement, which is critical to good employee performance

2. Having a good appraisal system in place ensures the business has an audit of the ongoing interactions with employees around performance problems, and can be an important factor in the employer’s favour if any cases are ever brought against the employer for unfair dismissal etc.

3. Appraisal need not be a long painful process: keeping your appraisal process simple, straightforward and directly linked to the company’s business objectives will ensure that people use it and that managers rate it.

 For more information on the key steps in creating a customised Appraisal for your organisation, contact us at info@tracksurveys.co.uk or on 020 7206 7279.    

This article in today’s Guardian appears to show evidence that people work better in teams.

However, in an article in Harvard Business Review called ‘Why Teams Don’t Work, the authors debunk the myth that teams are the answer to every performance issue, and that teams always perform better than individuals working on their own.  They question the whole idea of ‘team dynamic’ as an absolute, consistently positive force.

Common misconceptions about teams include:

Teams that work harmoniously together are better and more productive than teams that don’t: there is more evidence that teams who are more productive, and are recognised as a team for it,  get on better together because of their good performance, not the other way around.

Teams work better because the work is shared out, and the bigger the team, the more effective: unfortunately this is cancelled out by the difficulty of keeping the right people informed as the team gets bigger, so big teams are not necessarily a good idea.

Teams should be renewed constantly to encourage creativity: again, this is not proven by evidence. In fact the more productive teams were those who had been together for a number of years and understood each other deeply.  Many teams are never given enough time to settle in and learn to work together.

In a research paper called ‘The Romance of Teams’, (Allen and Hecht, 2004), the authors conclude that the reasons people like working in teams are mainly because of the social interaction, because

1. team members feel good being part of a successful team
2. people also feel somewhat ’sheltered’ in a team, and
3. they can blame someone else on the team if something goes wrong!

To ask a question or share ideas about team performance and how you can measure it, go to
http://tracksurveys.co.uk/AskTrack.aspx

 For more information, articles and resources on teams and team performance measurement, contact me on jo.ayoubi@tracksurveys.co.uk
or go to:
http://www.tracksurveys.co.uk/TeamWorks.aspx

In this great blog, Deus Ex Macchiato tells us that we’re wasting our time appraising, feeding back or even trying to work out who does a great job in an organisation.   Here’s my response:

Loved your blog about HRbots and was intrigued that you assumed Catbert (my favourite Dilbert character) was female…I always thought Catbert was a boy…!

But moving on to your specific points:

1. Appraisals and 360 Degree Feedback: these are systems that provide some consistency over how people’s performance and activities are measured and rated .  The results of their work need to be checked from time to time, as does their capability of working with others, customers, etc. 

And without some kind of consistency (and feedback from multiple sources), how can you, indeed, overcome individual managers’ prejudices…?

A good appraisal or 360 Degree Feedback should be very clearly linked to the individual’s job performance…

2. I disagree entirely with your second point: people tend to behave and respond in fairly consistent ways over time.   I have never seen someone who sits around suddenly become a start performer - it just doesn’t happen.  They sit around because of a combination of personality, motivation and skills.  You can’t change the first two, only the last one, and only if you know what skills are required…thus measurement is important.

3. I tend to agree with your point about ’star’ performers. Have to say though, aside from the stars, a company still needs everyone else performing at their best. Not sure average is something we should be aiming for…!

And finally, if not meritocracy, then what?

Thanks for giving me something to get my thinking going on a Friday afternoon!

Jo
jo.ayoubi@tracksurveys.co.uk
www.tracksurveys.co.uk

In this article the reader wonders how he can coax his manager to give him feedback.

Ah the reluctant feedback giver - we all know a few of these!

Our suggestion is: don’t ask for ‘feedback’! 

Some people have an aversion to what they think are management fads, or ‘management speak’, and ‘feedback’ may be one of these.  Other may even feel threatened by the whole idea as they may not be sure how to do it right.  It can be just as frightening to be asked for feedback as to get it!”

So what about just saying:

‘How am I doing’? ‘Is there anything I can do better, or differently?’ What would you like me to do more of?’ .  Even better, refer the question to the work you’re doing at the moment, so the feedback can be really specific: ‘What can I do better on the XYZ project?’

Another good approach is Start, Stop, Continue…..’What would you like me Start doing, Stop doing, Continue doing?’ . This lets the manager off the hook if they are a bit reluctant or nervous, and allows them to focus on real actions, behaviours and examples from work, projects, clients etc ….making the whole experience a better one for the individual and their manager.

Go to www.tracksurveys.co.uk and download more tips for How to Give Great Feedback, and What not to when Giving Great Feedback.

 Feedback can be learnt

Another point to remember is that vague, feelgood feedback doesn’t really help either.  It’s much more motivating to hear ‘Thanks for updating me on XYZ. Its really useful for me to know whats happening’, than ‘You’re a great guy, keep up the good work’.
Vague positive feedback, because its not specific, is unhelpful and can also sound insincere.

This article has some compelling reasons why we need to know our weaknesses and why we need to get feedback from people around us.

Our brains are designed to overlook our own flaws and weaknesses and to feel more confident about our skills than is realistic (how many people do you know who think they’re a much better driver than average?…I know an awful lot of them, inculding myself!).   This being the case, feedback from others on specific areas and behaviours is essential if we are going to improve, whether in work or elsewhere. 

 So for organisations, making sure that people get structured, focused 360 Degree Feedback is even more important, because the success and maybe even the survival of the organisation depends on people performing at their best, and knowing where they need to improve.

If you’ve been following The Apprentice, as we have been here at Track, you’ll remember the interview episode (Episode 11).  I was struck by how often the candidates talked about the feedback they had received throughout the series, how they felt, and what they were going to do about it. 

• You’ve got to be tough-skinned and brave to hear that…
• Some people have said that I rub people up the wrong way…
  I find that extraordinary because I never thought that I did!
• I’ve learned how my personality and the way I communicate…
  has an impact on other people
• It’s a painful experience for someone to hold up a
  ‘professional mirror’ to you and say ‘this is what I see’
  and it’s something you see differently,  but it’s actually
  one of the most liberating things you can do… because I’ve
  got the opportunity to transform that..
• The hardest part about today to was to really see (myself)
  through someone else’s eyes…

A recent article in Harvard Business Review (July-August 2000/Nohria, Groysberg and Lee) on Employee Motivation identifies 4 basic emotional drives that motivate human beings. 

Here’s a summary of that article:

The key drives that motivate people are:

The drive to acquire: this includes status and reputation, as well as pay and benefits
The drive to bond: i.e. people derive satisfaction and motivation from forming relationships with other
The drive to comprehend, that is, to make sense of what’s happening around them and to learn
The drive to defend; this is about protecting ourselves and people or things we value against external threat

The authors’ research shows that that organisations which were able to meet one of the four drives showed an increase in employee motivation of 5%, but those that enhanced performance on all four drives effectively showed an increase of 21% in motivation (and by implication, engagement and therefore performance).

So what kinds of specific actions can organisations take to help employees fulfil those key emotional needs? Here are some examples from the article:

Acquire = rewards = clear differentiation between good, average and poor performance 
Bond = culture = building a culture that really promotes teamwork and openness
Comprehend = job design = designing job roles that are clear and meaningful
Defend = performance management and work allocation practices = making processes more transparent so people feel they are being treated fairly

How can we do more with our current skillsets and tools to increase motivation as described in this model?

Do you have any ideas to share about how we could increase motivation using this model?

How do you think this model will be affected by the current climate of uncertainty and change in the workplace?  

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