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Feedback isn't Enough
We all want feedback - we want to know how we are doing. Getting that
input gives us a benchmark of our current performance and helps us
improve. It is important. It is necessary.
And it isn't enough.
Consider
your basic performance review (even if it is a really effective one) or
most any performance discussion. Most, if not all, of that conversation
focuses on the past - what people have done that worked and went well,
and what could be improved or changed.
At the end of that
conversation, the supervisor, coach or leader feels better - they have
given the person feedback! Unfortunately, for the other person that
might not be enough. While they now have a new perspective on their past
performance, they must do the translation - they are left to figure out
what to do next time.
Four Types of Input
There are
four types of input that we can give to people:
1. Negative
feedback (that didn't work - remember that).
2. Positive feedback
(that did work - good job!)
3. Negative feedforward (next time,
avoid this or that)
4. Positive feedforward (next time, try this and
repeat this)
While most people think of feedback as positive or
negative, that tells only part of the story. As important as it is to
learn from the past, we are looking at the past as a guide to adapting,
changing or improving future performance.
Instead of focusing on
the past only, why not make your intentions perfectly clear and use the
past to give people advice about what do to next time?
Five
Reasons to Consider Feedforward
No translation required. If we
have ideas about what to do - or not to do next time - why not share
them? When we have an expertise, sometimes when we give feedback we are
assuming that people will know what or how to change or adapt. When we
give clear feedforward we aren't assuming - there will be no translation
required.
It can be faster. Sometimes we spend a long time
trying to give the feedback in a way that people will accept and
understand. In these cases it might be much faster to just give some
clear directions on what to do next time. We all know this is true
because in a crisis or overloaded work situation this is what we do.
Remember that feedforward isn't only effective, it can be faster.
It
can be more readily accepted. People are less defensive when receiving
advice about what to do in the future. On the other hand, there can be
lots of defensiveness and denial when people we hearing about their past
performance. Because it is future focused, feedforward is often
accepted - and therefore used more readily than feedback.
We
can't change the past. Maybe this should have been first on the list. We
can learn from the past, but we can't change it. This is why feedback
is still important - if we focus solely on the future our advice may
become too directive (do this, do this, but not that). On the other hand
if we only think about the past, we aren't creating the future we
desire. Focus some of your conversation on what you can change - which
is the future.
Feedforward creates an upward spiral. We are
having a conversation about performance because we want people to
continue to grow, succeed and be more productive and happy in their
work, right? Using feedforward as a tool helps us move people in an
upward, engaged spiral of performance.
Feedback is important,
but it isn't enough. Examine how your coaching and mentoring sessions
go. Are you sharing feedforward? Are you asking for feedforward?
Including this in your discussion will create better relationships and
better results - for both the coach and the coached.
About the Author:
Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert
and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a
learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential
through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services.