Key Learning Points: Feedback in the world of work is information provided to someone about their performance or the way they do things. It is usually delivered to help improve performance. Fundamentally it is either positive or negative (though negative feedback is sometimes euphemistically re-framed as constructive). There are many different types of feedback and a huge range of feedback models.
Feedback in the World of Work
Feedback is a key tool used in organizations to ensure that individuals are aware of how they are performing, what they should continue to do and what they should change in order to be more effective. While it is often considered to be a top-down tool, in reality feedback can be beneficial in all directions.
There are three distinct reasons for providing feedback: changing behaviors, comparing performance and celebrating success.
Feedback to Change Behaviors
When people think of feedback, they usually think of messages intended to change someone’s behaviors, to help them understand their performance, so that they can improve it.
Feedback of this nature should be timely, delivered in private and include specific examples. There are a huge number of models designed to help with this type of feedback.
There are two primary ways that we can try to change behavior through feedback. Firstly, we can focus on negative behaviors or outcomes and help identify ways that individuals can improve, change behaviors or otherwise achieve better outcomes in the future. Secondly, we can focus on things that are good and look to further increase performance in these areas.
Provision of positive and negative feedback like this with the intention of improving behaviors can be effective. It is related to the use of “Reinforcement Theory” in the workplace.
Feedback to Compare Performance
Feedback also has a very clear role to play in helping people understand their position in relation to their peers. People tend to be less explicitly conscious of this purpose of feedback.
This use of feedback is essential when organizations operate peer groups or similar hierarchical structures. In these organizations, it can be very important for individuals to understand how they are performing compared to their peers. This purpose for feedback crosses over a lot with the world of performance management, which we touch on shortly.
Feedback to Celebrate Success and Motivate
Feedback in the world of work has many benefits. All too often people forget about the fact that it is a great way to celebrate success. When used well and with genuine messages, feedback is a powerful motivational tool. It’s a way to help individuals and teams focus on the great things that they do.
As well as motivating, celebratory feedback can help build relationships, increase wellbeing and resilience and improve relationships and reputations with stakeholders.
Development Vs Performance Management
Many different tensions exist in relation to feedback. One of the biggest lies in the relationship between feedback for development, and feedback for performance management.
In our view, feedback for development and feedback for performance management should be separated as much as possible.
Development Feedback
When people believe that they are being given feedback that is well intentioned, designed and delivered with the purpose of helping them develop and improve, then they will usually value that feedback. They might not agree with it, and they might find the feedback process emotionally difficult, but generally they will appreciate the efforts made to help them develop.
However, feedback isn’t always of this form.
Performance Management Feedback
Feedback in the world of work is often collected in order to rank the performance of individuals, or perhaps to justifying their pre-decided rankings. These rankings often appear on employee records, affect reputations and progression opportunities and may affect bonus payments or annual salary increases.
When this is the case, feedback may lose much of its value as a means for helping people learn. Even when people receive constructive feedback, they will typically see it as a social threat to their status more than an opportunity from which to grow.
Learning More
Those of you who have spoken to us will know we have pretty strong views on feedback. We understand that receiving feedback well can be difficult and that feedback can feel like a social threat. We also know that receiving feedback can be triggering, causing our amygdala responses (fight or flight) to kick in. Given this, we think it’s good to focus on learning to receive feedback well before focusing on learning to give feedback well.
There are several posts in this site on various feedback tools and models which might be helpful. These include 360 degree feedback, the stop, start continue framework, The COIN model, the feedback review matrix and the CEDAR model. There are also some tools we think you should avoid, including the feedback sandwich.
Our View
Feedback in the world of work is hugely important. As individuals it’s important to seek feedback from people whose opinions you value and to try and grow and develop as a result of it. And as teams or organizations it’s important to create a feedback culture so you can constantly learn and improve.
However, many people providing feedback aren’t very good at it, and in many organizations the feedback process is little more than a waste of everyone’s time. Given that, it’s not always something that you should take too seriously…
How We Help Organizations
We provide leadership development programmes and consulting services to clients around the world to help them become high performing organizations that are great places to work. We receive great feedback, build meaningful and lasting relationships and provide reduced cost services where price is a barrier.
Learning more about who we are and what we do it easy: To hear from us, please join our mailing list. To ask about how we can help you or your organization, please contact us. To explore topics we care about, listen to our podcast. To attend a free seminar, please check out our eventbrite page.
We’re also considering creating a community for people interested in improving the world of work. If you’d like to be part of it, please contact us.
Sources and Feedback
Most of the information used as the basis for this post comes from our own experience in the workplace and there are no specific references for it. If you think anything in here should be attributed to anyone, please let us know.
We’re a small organization who know we make mistakes and want to improve them. Please contact us with any feedback you have on this post. We’ll usually reply within 72 hours.
