None of us is perfect. Without guidance, it’s easy to adopt behaviors and habits acceptable to us that, ultimately, don’t wear well with others.
As employees we need feedback from day one. There is no better (or cheaper) way to teach us the skills and behaviors we need to be successful.
Performance feedback is one of the most important roles of any supervisors. It’s how problems are nipped in the bud, skills are polished, misbehavior is corrected, and a continuous performance growth culture is built.
Getting through
Supervisors resist giving feedback because they’re uncertain about:
- - What to say
- - How employees will react
- - What to do if there’s pushback
- - Whether they’ll make matters worse
Employees resist feedback because they:
- - Don’t want to change
- - Don’t get it
- - Don’t respect their supervisor
- - Don’t see any upside or consequences
To make the situation stickier, employees may perform exceptionally well in some areas like production but terribly in others like on teams.
As a supervisor you need all employees to deliver value in all aspects of their jobs. That’s what you’re paying them for. To accept poor performance in one area is to accept paying a full salary for only part of the job.
“Can you hear me now?”
Delivering feedback is one thing. Getting employees to hear and act on it is another.
That means you need to:
- - Follow up on your feedback to make sure it’s being implemented
- - Reinforce it through repetition, review, and discussion
- - Reward or deliver consequences based commitments
Feedback only works when you have your employee’s attention. It starts with a conversation where you and your employee talk to each other. Each needs to hear what the other is saying and come to agreement on next steps.
It takes real commitment from both supervisor and employee. And often it takes repeated effort, time, and sometimes consequences.
Michael Vick, a dramatic case
Michael Vick was a high performing employee as the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons football team. He could throw and also scramble for yardage like few others. Vick was a superstar who came from a rough background where he, as a kid and young man, he struggled to avoid the vortex of the streets.
After he went into the pros, he remained tethered to some unsavory people from his “old life.” For years he received feedback from coaches and others about his need to break those ties. He didn’t heed the feedback.
In 2007, he was implicated in a dog fighting ring and pleaded guilty to federal felony charges that resulted in 21 months in jail. dback didn’t get his attention but the consequences of not listening did.
Vick had to come to grips with what he’d done and turn it into advocacy. He had to restart his NFL career and recover from bankruptcy. Coach Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles gave him a job as a back-up QB in 2009 where he faced relentless negative public reaction. It was another round of feedback, often painful,vitriolic, and deserved.
It took positive performance to turn things around for Vick.
On Sunday, September 11, 2011, Michael Vick snapped the ball as the starting QB for the Eagles, winning the game 33-13 over the St. Louis Rams. He ran for 98 yards and threw two touchdown passes. He’s now playing with a multi-million-dollar contact, his life clearly on the upswing.
Michael Vick took a long time to hear it and paid a big price for ignoring feedback.
Hearing feedback pays
It’s one thing to listen to feedback and another to hear it. It’s one thing to hear feedback and another to act on it.
Good feedback generally comes from people who care about us—people who want us to perform well, so we can experience success and growth.
Each of us is both a giver and receiver of feedback. We are positioned to help others turn around and ourselves too. There’s power in feedback. Let’s commit to using it well.