Manegment homework !!!!!!!!! due tonight at 10 PM eastern time THURSDAY july 20
saraalhamdan
feedback.pptModule 10:
Improving Job Performance
Feedback
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Hello, in this segment we will discuss the process of giving and receiving feedback to maximize job performance and goal accomplishment.
Steps for Effective Goal Setting Programs
Set Goals
What do you base the goals on? How do you know what is appropriate?
Promote Goal Commitment
Under what conditions will an employee be motivated to pursue a goal?
Provide Support and Feedback
How will the employee reach the goal? What resources will be necessary?
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You’ll recall in our last lecture we discussed the three steps for implementing effective goal setting programs. We discussed the first two in detail and this segment is devoted to discussing the step of providing support and feedback in more detail.
Two Purposes of Feedback
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Feedback is an incredibly important managerial skill and one that is also very difficulty to develop. Managers are often concerned about damaging the relationship with their team if they have to deliver negative feedback. But, feedback has two important purposes for improving business performance.
First, it helps give information to people about how they are doing. “Am I on track, am I meeting expectations, have I made any major mistakes, what could I do better?”
As you can see from this chart, people use their abilities and expend effort, which, if followed by timely and instructive feedback can help employees alter their behavior to consistently improve their performance and promote learning, personal development, and stable and strong job performance.
The second purpose of feedback is to motivate employees to persist in achieving their goals by recognizing their contributions. This serves to reinforce their behaviors and promotes renewed energy towards the job.
As I mentioned, though, managers sometime avoid giving feedback or don’t deliver in a way that will promote employees’ receptivity.
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Trouble Signs For Organizational Feedback Systems
Feedback is used to punish, embarrass, or put down employees
Those receiving the feedback see it as irrelevant to their work.
Feedback information is provided too late to do any good.
People receiving feedback believe it relates to matters beyond their control.
Employees complain about wasting too much time collecting and recording feedback data.
Feedback recipients complain about feedback being too complex or difficult to understand.
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Before we discuss ways managers can give effective feedback, I’d like to highlight signs that the feedback systems within an organization are not as effective as they could be. These signs of trouble in organizational feedback systems indicate the feedback system needs work in order to build a system that is credible and effective.
For those of you with work experience, you’ve probably heard cynicism about performance appraisal systems. Managers and employees tend to dread the annual performance feedback conversation. This is often caused by some of these issues:
- In organizations where feedback is used to punish, embarrass, or put down employees then employees see this as personal rather than a way of promoting their success
- Those receiving the feedback see it as irrelevant to their work – this is likely to occurs when organizations use the same metrics or measure the same performance attributes for all employees when their jobs are dramatically different and require different competencies or knowledge.
- Another issue is when feedback information is provided too late to do any good – this is an organizational culture issue, often. That is when managers reserve the organizationally mandated performance appraisal schedule for conveying feedback rather than giving it on a regular basis. If feedback is saved until a point months in the future, it has much less developmental value.
- People receiving feedback believe it relates to matters beyond their control. For example, if sales quotas are based on previous years when the economy was thriving but the reality is now that the economy is in a slump, this can be quite demotivating to a sales force. They are likely to feel that their efforts may not lead to the results they are held accountable for but not for lack of trying.
- Employees complain about wasting too much time collecting and recording feedback data. Some organizations require that employees document their progress and these systems can be onerous for employees and actually take them away from other, more important, work.
- And finally, when feedback recipients complain about feedback being too complex or difficult to understand this may signal a change is required.
Some of these issues have to do with the organization’s choice of feedback and performance management systems. We’ll discuss those issues in our next segment. Now, we’ll discuss some practical tips managers can use for giving effective feedback….
Tips for Giving Good Feedback
Select the right time and place
Focus feedback on performance, not personalities
Give specific feedback tied to observable behavior or measurable results
Channel feedback toward key result areas.
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- First, select the right time and place. Be sure you choose a time when the person is ready to accept the feedback. For example, giving feedback in a time of crisis is probably not the right time. Also, a good rule of thumb is to praise publicly and redirect behavior privately.
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- Focus feedback on performance, not personalities. That is, avoid being evaluative when giving feedback, but rather descriptive with regard to what you have observed. For example, it’s more effective to say, you were late three times last week, rather than “I’m concerned about your work ethic”. The latter is evaluative while the former is specific and factual. Specific and descriptive information as opposed to general and evaluative feedback signals that it is the behavior about the person you want to change, not their personality. You want to convey that you don’t think they are a bad person, you just need them to change some behaviors.
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- Along the same lines, Be specific not general – Often times speaking in generalities can make people feel defensive. For example, if you say you’re always late, or I can never count on you it will cause people to probably take personal offense to it. Then, they tune out and start trying to defend themselves rather than focusing on the feedback. It is better to state specifically what the behavior is and what it’s is causing. For example, instead you might say, “Last week, I really needed your to help finish this presentation for company XYZ and I couldn’t reach you. As a result, I wasn’t able to send it to the prospective client in advance of the meeting which hurt our chances to get the business.
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- Channel feedback toward key result areas. It is very important to explain the business reason for the feedback and to provide context. Explain what the purpose of the feedback is. Explain to the person what your concerns are by setting it in the context of broader organizational goals in order to describe it’s relevance. Convey that you’re not trying to be nitpicky or micromanaging but that there is a specific business purpose for the feedback that has to do with achieving results you and your group is responsible for.
Tips for Giving Good Feedback
Give feedback as soon as possible
Give positive feedback for improvement, not just final results
Base feedback on accurate and credible information
Pair feedback with clear expectations for improvement.
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- Give feedback as soon as possible. This is good advice in that behavior that is ignored is often perceived as acceptable. So it is important to provide feedback immediately to ensure bad habits don’t begin, such as coming in late to work. But one caveat to consider…. Remember our first tip was to select the right time and place. It’s not appropriate to give feedback when the individual is upset or frustrated or when you are angry. In those cases, it is better to wait until the individual and you are mentally ready to have the feedback conversation.
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- Give feedback for improvement, not just final results. Remember the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Have confidence in the person, encourage them, explain that you know they are capable and point out positive aspects of their performance. Don’t make this mistake… I once had a boss who wanted me to sit in on the performance evaluation meetings of each member of our team because I was the second most senior person in the office. There was one employee who’s performance was quite variable – on some aspects he did well and on others he needed to improve. When we sat down my boss flipped open the performance appraisal packet and said, ok we can skip through the first few things because they’re fine. Let’s talk about the areas that need improvement. I was appalled because he lost an opportunity to reinforce and encourage the positive aspects of the employee’s behavior. The employee was demoralized after the meeting and rather than serving to provide constructive and motivating feedback, it ended up causing the employee to become disengaged in his work.
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- Base feedback on accurate and credible information. That is, ensure that your feedback concerns issues that the employee has actual control over. Remember from our discussion of social perception that people are inclined to attribute performance to an individual’s characteristic because of the fundamental attribution error. So remember to think about that external factors might be causing a lack of performance. Moreover, don’t rely on hearsay or rumors to base your feedback on. In those circumstances, be sure to investigate both sides of a situation before assuming there is something the employee needs to correct.
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- Pair feedback with clear expectations for improvement. Check for understanding by the person about what you have said. Ask them to share their perspective on the situation. This is a chance for you to determine an external cause that you may not have considered. But before the conversation closes, ensure that you both have a common understanding about the feedback and what next steps will be.
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Receiving Feedback
To help clarify feedback, receivers can ask:
Could you give me an example of the behavior that concerns you?
Can you help me understand how you came to that conclusion?
Can you help me understand the situations in which you have seen the behavior and what you see as the impact?
Can you clarify what you would like to see me do differently?
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Now, giving and receiving feedback is a two way process. When feedback is offered to you, take advantage of the learning opportunity. Be sure that you understand the issue and how to remedy it. Remember, not everyone will be skilled at giving feedback, so do yourself a favor and work to clarify their message. For feedback to be useful it should be actionable and accurate. Often the receiver of feedback doesn’t understand explicitly what the feedback giver is saying and how they came to their perceptions of performance. So, instead of feeling confused, receivers can ask the following questions to clarify the feedback:
Could you give me an example of the behavior that concerns you?
Can you help me understand how you came to that conclusion?
Can you help me understand the situations in which you have seen the behavior and what you see as the impact?
Can you clarify what you would like to see me do differently?
Clarity on the feedback will help you take the best action to improve. One thing people may fall victim to is being defensive or sensitive to feedback. Sometimes these emotions get in the way of making strides for improvement. Let’s look at some ways to handle this.
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Fear of Feedback:
Reframe Your Thinking
| Possible Neg. Emotion | Maladaptive Response | Reframing Statement |
| Anger | Acting out | It’s up to me to get the feedback I need. |
| Fear of confrontation | Denial, procrastination, self-sabotage | Taking the initiative puts me in charge and gives me some power |
| Hurt | Irritability, jealousy of others | I can still pay attention to what he said even though I feel hurt. |
| Defensiveness | Acting out by not supporting the boss | Being defensive keeps me from hearing what she has to say |
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These tips come from a Harvard Business Review article about how to reframe feedback to reduce the impact of natural, although counterproductive emotions.
The left column describes natural emotions that may arise and the potentially maladaptive responses on might engage in. A suggestion for how to reframe the your perspective to benefit from the feedback is in the third column.
Below are further descriptions of the negative emotions and maladaptive responses to help in explaining to the class.
For example, Anger. You’re anger might cause you to act out, stomp around, complain, be short and irritable. These may be natural reactions but won’t serve to improve the situation. Instead, try to reframe the situation and seek the beneficial feedback you need to develop yourself.
Fear of confrontation: People are also reluctant to ask for feedback because they are afraid of opening themselves up to criticism or they feel that they are too busy; or they may say, I’m doing fine, I don’t need to improve. This causes them to keep their head in the sand and may cause missed opportunities to develop professionally. Taking the initiative to ask for feedback puts you in control and allows you to have the ability to control your own destiny if you take it seriously and act on it. I have found that doing mid-course evaluations in each of my courses every semester always generates good ideas several of which I incorporate in to my teaching the next semester.
People also may feel hurt or become defensive in response to feedback. Again, if you can reframe it by not taking it personally and/or allowing yourself only a short time to feel bad before you bounce back and start to address the issue. Defensive responses stifle your ability to listen and understand what is being said. Remember to use the tips on the previous slide to receive the most helpful feedback.
Module 10:
Improving Job Performance
Feedback
Conclusion
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This concludes the lecture on giving and receiving feedback.
