Feedback: what is the signal?

From an evaluative point of view, feedback (FC) can be positive (compliment) or negative (criticism). Criticism and compliments are something we cannot live without. No, seriously, these are the two most important components of professional life. Compliments strengthen self-confidence, allow you to express sympathy, to understand who likes what we do. Criticism, however unpleasant it may be, is often very timely and helpful if it is seen not as a malicious attempt to offend or belittle, but as a signal to adjust behavior, style or direction of work. In general, criticism and compliments help us to ensure that we do not fall below the achieved level of development.

All of us periodically do not know how to regard criticism: is it on the case or not - and what's next? And it is not always clear how to treat compliments - they praise in order to get something or sincerely.

Most of us take criticism too personally and lose confidence in ourselves, and from compliments, without noticing how, we begin to relax a little and a little more. But we also cannot help but criticize and praise each other - this is one of the basic communication traffic that allows us to continuously update the coordinate system and our position in the space of life and work.

If you think about it, the topic of receiving feedback is one of the most painful: right and wrong reactions over time shape the landscape of life, communication, career and development.

What does right and wrong mean? Adequate situations and not corresponding to it. That is, the task for the leader is to learn how to give feedback in a way appropriate to the situation, and the task of the employee is to learn to penetrate the meaning of the feedback and respond productively to it. Is there a risk of replacing the natural relationships of people and making them "plastic" by working exclusively according to schemes? Fanaticism realizes any risks in general, and if you maintain adequacy, then tools - schemes, models and matrices - will only help to bring rationality and general semantics into working feedback, to make team relationships healthier.

This is information about a person's behavior in the past, which is given to him in the present, hoping that it will influence his behavior in the future.
Feedback is a key component in employee development. It helps not only to correct the mistakes of subordinates before they become habits, but also reinforces the desired behavior, stimulates Professional Development and ultimately helps employees achieve their goals.
In order to increase their own efficiency in the future, people need to understand very precisely how effective they are now. They need specific information on both strengths and areas in need of development. Feedback and is the very "mirror", looking into which people get the opportunity to see themselves, plan their own development and track progress.

Types and purpose of feedback
positive feedback serves to evaluate the effective behavior of the employee and thereby strengthen this line of human behavior in similar situations. In cases of positive feedback, it is said that What was done well Why it was good and what positive results led the actions of the employee.

positive feedback is a powerful tool for motivating employees. It is especially effective when it refers to specific behavior, although generalized praise also stimulates employees and increases their self-confidence. Among other things, positive feedback performs another important function - it tells others that the leader sees and appreciates the contribution of others to the common cause.

Negative Feedback serves to convey an assessment of ineffective behavior and is aimed at changing the actions of an employee. In this case, it indicates What was done incorrectly what are the alternatives behavior in this situation why their result could be better than as a result of the actions taken.

As a rule, it is easy for the leader see shortcomings in the work of subordinates. Much harder inform constructively report these shortcomings to subordinates in such a way as to guarantee their correction in the future.

Principles for giving constructive, positive and negative feedback

Principles of constructive feedback
Specific- describes specific example behavior that depends on the person; does not contain sweeping generalizations.
timely refers to a recent situation that is still fresh in your mind and that of the other feedback participant.
constructive- suggests behaviors that you would like to see in the future (especially with negative feedback).
With consequences- indicates the consequences of this behavior: how it affects you, others, the work process.
Educational- aims to help in development.

Principles for giving positive feedback to an employee
To make your positive feedback more effective:

1. When expressing your praise to an employee, highlight a certain aspect of behavior, a specific trend - make it clear what you value most in his actions (for example, meeting deadlines, high productivity, commitment to quality, willingness to work overtime to achieve results).

2. Point out to the subordinate the positive consequences of his actions. Let him know why you value his success so much and why it is so important to you that it be repeated: talk about the impact that success will have on you, on your team, on the organization as a whole.

3. Express your feelings - talk about satisfaction, joy or admiration for the actions of the subordinate.

4. Clearly communicate to the subordinate what behavior he should follow in the future.

5. Look for any opportunities to reward the employee for specific positive behaviors. Develop the habit of seeing situations that deserve encouragement. With this support of the desired behavior, subordinates will demonstrate it more often.

♦ How often do you praise them?
♦ Do you see the contribution of individuals to the overall success?
♦ Do you appreciate this contribution?
♦ Are your praises a response to specific achievements or are they caused by a favorable state of affairs in general, a good mood?

Principles for Submitting Negative Feedback

To increase constructive criticism and its effectiveness, follow these principles:

1. Respect the person's need for the privacy of criticism. Try to express your comments face to face.

2. Talk about the employee's behavior (for example, "you delayed making a decision on this issue for two days"), not about his personality (for example, "you are not able to make decisions and take responsibility").

3. Tell the employee about specific facts, avoid generalizations.

4. Specify specific Negative consequences actions of the subordinate. It is known that in 90% of cases of "ineffective" criticism, bosses get off with general phrases ("decrease in labor productivity", "decline in morale", etc.).

5. Personalize your statements - talk about your feelings. The phrase "I was very upset when I found out ..." will have a stronger effect than the impersonal exclamation "This is simply unacceptable!".

6. Give comments in a calm manner. Be sure that you are in control of yourself and are able to describe, and not "pour out" your feelings.

7. Be concise - get straight to the point and be direct. Remember that a person perceives worse when he becomes the object of criticism.

8. Be prepared for the fact that the employee does not immediately recognize the validity of your comments. When faced with criticism, people tend to become defensive, so don't try to win the subordinate's agreement right away. Just tell him your assessment and make sure he understands it. Give him a chance to think about your words.

9. Maintain the necessary balance of positive and negative information. Before giving an employee serious remarks, say a few words about those qualities that you appreciate. Beginning with remarks, end the conversation with your overall confidence in the subordinate's ability to succeed.

10. Strive for dialogue, avoid lectures. Give the subordinate the opportunity to present his vision of the problem

11. Focus on future actions. Do not "hang" on finding out the reasons for the mistakes made - this will only force the subordinate to look for new excuses. Move quickly to the questions “What will you do to prevent this from happening in the future?”.

12. Communicate to the subordinate not only the punishments for bad behavior, but also the benefits of good behavior.

13. At the end of the meeting, ask the subordinate to repeat in his own words what he needs to do to improve results. By doing so, you will not only test understanding, but also confirm that the subordinate is committed to improvement.

14. If you have a particularly difficult conversation ahead of you, play out possible scenarios in your mind. Think not only about how you will express your comments, but also about what you can hear in response and how you will react to it.

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The ability to communicate with subordinates and give feedback is traditionally referred to as the main skills of a professional manager. Any leader should be able to talk to an employee at the right time. And it seems to be, what is easier - called and talked. Specifically and to the point. Praised. Criticized. Set tasks. No problem!

However, in practice, things are not so rosy. Surveys that I conducted in several dozen companies showed that feedback is most often felt by employees as a problem area in relations with the manager.

“He called me and said that I had a bonus. And handed over a letter, which said that the award for the excellent implementation of the project. The money was very helpful, but I wanted to hear words of gratitude from my boss.”

“We start every morning with a scream. The door swings open, and the chief from his office begins to arrange a "dressing" for everyone in turn. They used to worry, but now they are used to it. It does not affect the work in any way. He will take the soul, and we continue to work.”

“She is not at all interested in how my work is going. Gives assignments, mainly e-mail. I am doing. It feels like I’m working in another city, although her office is ten meters from my desk.”

The value of feedback

The need for feedback is natural for any person, be it a top manager or an ordinary employee. Am I doing what the company needs? Right or wrong? Are my efforts recognized? The lack of feedback, as well as a gross violation of the rules for its submission, deprives a person of guidelines in the organization and reduces his desire to work. For a manager, feedback is a tool that allows you to:

• express recognition to the employee and support his high motivation;
• understand the reasons for undesirable employee behavior;
• correct employee behavior that deviates from standards;
• direct the employee to development in a specific direction.

Seven Rules for Quality Feedback

Are you going to talk to an employee, “want it to work”? Then start with goals! Understand what result you want to get from a conversation with an employee. Then it will be much easier to properly build a conversation. Regardless of the purpose of the conversation, it is useful to observe the following rules:

1. Talk about a specific event. “You showed up at work at 10:45 today. This is the second time in a week, let's talk about it." There is an event, and there is a topic for discussion. And if so: “You always sleep until eleven and are constantly late”? Generalization, generalization is a favorite technique of manipulators and the eternal theme of conflicts. Not good for quality feedback.
2. Give feedback shortly after the event you are discussing with the employee. Road spoon to dinner. “You worked with this VIP Client today. Let's see what happened this time." Compare: “Remember, about two months ago you served a VIP client” Let's see what mistake you made there. How does it say? Who remembers the old?
3. Use Confirmed Specific Facts. "I noticed that you didn't use a new questionnaire when working with this Client”. What does the employee hear? The manager carefully observed the work, noticed and remembered - this is important for him! And if so: “They say you completely stopped using questionnaires”? There will be no constructive conversation. There will be a game of attack and defense. And that's not what a leader needs.
4. Involve the employee in the discussion - let them speak.“What do you think a Customer who wanted to place an urgent order, but could not get through to us at 9:30, would do.” What can be done to prevent the recurrence of such situations? Let him say. First, this good way stimulate independent thinking of the employee on the topic under discussion and his responsibility for those decisions that you agree on during the discussion. Secondly, without giving a word to an employee, you can deprive yourself of important information and even get into an awkward position. I witnessed a situation where the boss scolded an employee for violating the deadlines for submitting a regular report - it turned out that he missed that two days earlier a new procedure was sent to the organization that changed not only the deadlines, but also the reporting format: the data was now entered into centralized system. The employee began to act according to the new instructions. So there is no scolding, but it was necessary to praise.
5. Discuss events and activities. Not a person. Sticking a label on a person is a matter of minutes. “You are selfish! You only think about yourself!?" Say this to an employee a couple of times - and you can no longer expect help, mutual assistance and the desire for teamwork from him. After all, he is an egoist, and you elevated him to this rank by the power given to you. Someone will be offended and withdraw into himself. Someone will turn into your opponent. And someone will start to turn other members of the team against you. Personality is a delicate matter, don't mess with it! Find other words: “I appreciate your desire to use every opportunity to work with the Client. However, there must be reasonable limits. Think about what image among the Clients your actions can create for our company?”
6. Talk about what can be changed. This applies to those situations when you target an employee to correct behavior and develop skills. H will work: “Yes, I see that we have a problem, with such a quiet voice it is difficult to win over the Clients.” What were we thinking when we hired this employee? Uh, brother, now you have to help her! “If you sit on this side, the Clients will hear you better, let's try. By the way, can we think about a microphone?
7. You can praise in public, but it is better to criticize face to face. There are several reasons. Public criticism is very demotivating. Once. We have strong traditions in Russia to support the offended. So do not be surprised if, after a public reprimand, your allies will decrease in the team. Two. If you are wrong (this may be, see above in paragraph 4), you will be wrong for everyone. Do you need it? Three. Praise is another matter. And this is a whole art! “Of course, it’s good that you reassured the Client so quickly, but why didn’t you tell about the new product”? Is this praise or criticism? Not very clear. “You managed to calm the client down so quickly - share the secret of how you do it?” And this is so much better! They praised, made a compliment, raised self-esteem and motivation. Which is what was required.

Once you start using these rules, you will notice how much more productive your meetings with employees have become.

Principles of Effective Feedback

Why this conversation is important and useful is its versatility. The principles that will be discussed work perfectly in all areas of our lives. And everywhere they bring great results - when used correctly. We usually do not recommend practicing speaking skills in front of relatives and friends at trainings. But in this matter, on the contrary, we strongly recommend that the principles of effective feedback be introduced and used in personal life as soon as possible.

The quality of feedback is perhaps the key issue of any training, and, in general, the development process. Good feedback (for short, OS) signals in time how correctly we are moving towards our goal, whether we need to correct course or change speed (and possibly even urgently turn around in the opposite direction and change the mode of transport). The OS also affects the goals themselves - they have to be adjusted, or even changed. In a word, the importance of a quality OS in our life can hardly be overestimated - unfortunately, many people could not achieve what they are capable of, due to the wrong OS from their mentors.

Take a look around - we constantly receive a powerful stream of assessments, criticism, advice, discussions and condemnations of ourselves and each of our actions. What is splashing in this stream?

Empathy?

The desire of a critic to show off his mind?

Seeking to hurt us?

Intention to put in place?

Indifferent execution of the protocol?

Alas, sometimes even a sincere desire to help resembles the strong friendly embrace of a porcupine - it will gouge and splinter. After all, the contexts of the process of transferring knowledge and experience can be very different. Compare: “I teach you - you are still young and stupid - you are clumsy and generally worthless” and “you are learning - you are striving to become a master - you are doing great!”. In which of the "wraps" did you receive your training more often?

Of course, from any touch of life you can extract useful lessons- if you had enough strength after this touch to stand on your feet. And yet, from the point of view of efficiency and speed of learning, it is much better when the OS is given in compliance with certain principles.

So - competent advice, or principles of an effective OS.

1. FRIENDLY.

The most important condition for a person to accept your advice is the creation of a friendly, trusting atmosphere. This is perhaps fundamental difference constructive advice from malicious criticism.

Try right now in front of the mirror to make a disgruntled grimace, stand in a defiantly combative pose and depict an aggressive gesture with your hands. Well, how? I think that I really want to respond to the reflection seen in the mirror with the same aggression (and if you did a good job with a grimace, then just run away) - what kind of feedback is there!

The atmosphere of trust and friendliness creates a positive working attitude, encourages the full disclosure of creative potential, helps to accept the OS "essentially", without "bothering" over the possible "secret motives" of its author. Moreover, this is true both for working with other people and for evaluating your own performance.

Creating such an atmosphere is sometimes difficult, but almost always necessary!

2. SINCERE.

Sometimes - imbued with the desire to achieve maximum friendliness - we begin to issue an OS that does not quite correspond to reality. Whether the desire to please it, the fear of upsetting - the result is sad. The speaker, who received such an OS "in roses", stops in development.

To be effective and help you grow in skill, your OS must be honest and sincere. There is no need to be silent about the shortcomings - otherwise a person will not know about them. There is no need to invent non-existent virtues - otherwise a person will not understand what he should work on next. An insincere OS is meaningless, since it does not fulfill its main task.

Speaking about this principle at trainings, we always emphasize that it is also important not to be afraid to give your sincere feedback if you work in a group and the opinions of other participants (and even trainers!) do not coincide with your opinion. This is normal, the general objective picture always consists of many personal SINCERE opinions that do not fit one under the other.

3. PRAISE FIRST! We say what we like.

In trainings, this is the most ardently supported in discussion and the most difficult principle to implement)))

It would seem that it is so easy to tell a person first of all that he is doing well, to praise him, to rejoice with him! But in real life for some reason, everything turns out the other way around - is this our mentality, or what?

Why is it so important to start with praise?

The person made great efforts, tried - it is important to note this in order to consolidate positive motivation, to give a positive assessment of the achieved result;

This will strengthen the atmosphere of friendliness and trust to each other, will help to perceive information about shortcomings more constructively;

A person will know about his strengths, about what he can rely on in his future work, this will strengthen his confidence in his abilities.

You yourself, paying attention, first of all, to strengths speaker, you will have a great opportunity to “take” them for yourself, learn how to do the same and enrich your “arsenal” of strong techniques, good habits and witty solutions - an excellent material for your Self-Developing System!

Add some of your own...

Sometimes at trainings the question arises - what to do if there is nothing to praise for? Invent something, violating the principle of sincerity? Or immediately criticize, violating the principle of friendliness?

The answer here is simple. Both I and my colleagues, having conducted a considerable number of trainings and having seen very a large number of listeners agreed that there is always something to praise a person for. As unfortunate as his public speaking, his job performance, his seminar response, his attempt at cooking dinner, the list goes on.

If you can't find reasons to praise, then something is wrong with you as an expert, as a coach, as a parent, as a leader ... continue the list. So, you need to urgently work on yourself in this direction.

Regarding praise, as the basis of feedback, I will share an interesting parable:

"One young wealthy man bought beautiful house with a beautiful garden. And his neighbor was an envious man. To such an extent envious that every time he did some kind of disgusting thing. And then one fine morning, a young, wealthy man opened the doors of his house, and on the porch he saw a bucket full of slops. He took this bucket, poured out the slop, polished the bucket to a shine, went to his garden and filled this bucket with the ripest, most beautiful apples and went to his neighbor. The envious man, seeing that a neighbor was approaching his house, was delighted: “Finally, I got him!” and ran to open the doors of his house, hoping for a scandal. But, opening the door, he saw a neighbor who, holding out a bucket full of beautiful apples, said: “He who is rich with what, he shares with it ...”
Friends, I ask you to share apples with each other in feedback!

By the way, in the feedback, the participants of our trainings said that this principle - first of all, to notice positive things and phenomena around them - gradually turning into a habit, radically changed their system of views on the world around them as a whole. And life has become much happier, kinder and richer. Try it too!

The rest of the principles will be discussed in the next issue. We will discuss

How can you criticize anyway?

How to light up your eyes

Why brevity is really the sister of talent

Who to give the first word

And other interesting things...

Faithful to you Words and Right Decisions!

Vyacheslav Salomasov
Psychologist, coach, business coach.
Head and leading coach of the school of public speaking "True Word"
https://vernoeslovo.com/

In order for employees to understand you and want to achieve results with you, it is important to competently discuss their strengths and weaknesses with them and set goals for them. In this manual you will find techniques, recommendations and examples for giving feedback to sales managers.

Feedback Goals

• help the employee recognize their strengths and weaknesses;
• support actions that improve performance;
• help to learn from the mistakes made.

What does good feedback mean?

• evaluation parameters are transparent, understandable and known to employees;
• the evaluation procedure is objective, not based on personal likes / dislikes - for this, an outside specialist is often invited;
• situations that have occurred recently, for example, within one reporting week, are subject to analysis;
• criticism should be justified by the results of the assessment;
• criticism should be constructive, that is, suggest ways to solve problems;
• there should be a system of rewards for distinguished employees;
• statistics should be kept by which progress can be tracked.

The service "Quality control of sales departments": who will need it, and how we do it

How to give feedback to managers

Model "Sandwich"

The error parsing block (developing feedback) is located between the positive feedback blocks. It is used in conversations on setting goals, adjusting results, developing employees:

Manager Sergey corrected errors last week, but the sales plan has not yet been fulfilled. We give Sergey feedback.

Let's start with the positive. “Sergei, this week you succeeded and corrected the mistakes that we met in your conversations for a month. Now, while talking on the phone, you address customers by name, engage in a dialogue with interest, and set the next sales step.”

We will discuss what needs to be adjusted, we will discuss the improvement plan. “At the same time, there is room to grow. Pay attention to the presentation of the product, company. Our clients apply to dozens of companies, we need to stand out among them, to interest the client with our offer. Let's discuss what you can do about it." There is no open criticism, we discuss with the employee a plan to improve his performance.

We end the conversation on a positive note. “Great, the action plan has been agreed, let's get to work. Try calling current clients using the plan we discussed. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch."

SOR model

Suitable in cases where an employee violated the company's work standards, committed a misdemeanor:

Manager Aleksey did not respond to the client's request within the set time, the client terminated the service contract.

We remind you of the standard (Standart). “Aleksey, our company has a rule - an application for a service must be processed as soon as possible, within a maximum of 30 minutes. The client must know within 30 minutes that we have accepted the application and started working.”

We state the facts and observation (Observation). “Yesterday at 10:15 a request was received from our client, but you only called back at 15:00. The customer waited a long time and tried to fix the problem himself.”

We discuss the impact on the business, the result of the employee's action (Result). “As a result, the customer decided to terminate the service contract because he did not receive assistance at the specified time.”

The next step is the employee's awareness of his act and the acceptance of obligations for the consequences of his behavior.

Boff model

The new manager, Irina, regularly violates the standards of quality service: she communicates impolitely with clients, processes applications late, forgets to call back on time, and stays late during lunch breaks.

Behavior. Tell Irina your observations about her work. Specifically, in the language of facts, preferably with details, dates of observations. Discuss the reasons. Sometimes it happens that the employee is not fully aware of what is expected of him.

Result (Outcome). Discuss with Irina how her behavior (irritability and rudeness in communicating with clients, ignoring applications, a long absence from the workplace after a break) affects business results, the number of clients served, and the number of complaints received from clients.

Feelings. Talk about how you feel knowing Irina works this way. You are upset, upset, not very happy, it is unpleasant for you to realize. Discuss how other managers feel when Irina is away from work for a long time and they have to handle additional calls. By doing so, you will help Irina realize the unacceptability of her behavior.

Future (Future). Discuss with Irina how she can change her behavior. It is best to ask questions and get answers from a co-worker. This will allow her to take responsibility for future decisions and actions. At the end of the conversation, agree on specific actions and deadlines, outline a plan of action for the future. It is advisable to schedule a date for the next meeting to monitor and discuss Irina's progress.

• listen to the call together;
• ask the operator what he generally thinks of this call;
• ask the operator what he thinks he did best;
• ask the operator what he thinks about the customer's experience and whether the customer will use the company's service or products again;
• ask the operator what he would like to improve in this call;
• now express your opinion about this call, using, for example, the “sandwich” model;
• choose one narrow area to focus on using the SMART technique. Do not take the topic "customer service" - it is too extensive for one session;
• play the situation again: you are the client, and the manager will try to take into account his mistakes and build communication based on the comments.