Feedback: An Important Leadership Skill

What is that one thing that you have struggled with as a new leader? For me, it was providing feedback. I started handling teams over a decade ago. As a new leader, I was traversing unfamiliar turf. One of the things that I struggled with was giving feedback. I would like to acknowledge two of my previous employers, who at different times, conducted training that guided me to understand this technique and employ it in my leadership journey.

Providing feedback was and continues to be, a significant way of making sure that you put your point across in a productive manner. Many leaders fail to do so and end up miscommunicating their expectations and intentions. Through the years I have developed (with the training I have received) and follow a 5-step method to connect and communicate with my team and make sure that I am on track with the feedback process.

EXPECTATIONS: One of the most important aspects of leading a team to success is to let them know what you expect out of them. A major mistake that leaders make is to assume that the team/members know where you want to go from this point onwards. However, if you do not tell them, it is unfair to expect them to know what you want them to do. I had written a blog previously on a 3-step mechanism to set the expectations with your team. The blog can be accessed here: https://srushtirao.com/expectation-setting/. A word of advice would be to begin every formal feedback session by paraphrasing the expectations. Your tone, as you set the foundation for the conversation, matters. Keep it neutral and balanced as you set the pace.

OBSERVATIONS: The next step for a productive conversation is to state some of the facts clearly. For positive feedback, it is a breeze, and you could list down the wins. For the more difficult conversations, have the specific instances ready as a reference. Do not mention at this point how you ‘feel’ about the performance. You need to mention the instance in question and clearly state the facts. Like – ‘I have observed that the report that was supposed to be submitted on (the said date) has not been submitted yet and there has been a delay of (no. of days)’. Here, please avoid using phrases such as ‘you delayed the submission’ as this could come across as accusatory and that would put the team/member in a defensive position rather than receptive.

ASSESSMENTS: Once you have clearly stated the concern, you can move on to the next step to assess the situation. You could analyze the observations and mention how you interpret them through the lens of the set expectations, and how it directly impacts the performance. It could also be helpful to mention a personal example at this point if you deem it necessary, especially for more complex feedback. This would set the context for the next step.

CONSEQUENCES: Once you have assessed the error in question, at this point you can make the team/member aware of the consequences that would directly impact the person/team. The gravity of the consequences needs to be made clear. For the convenience of measurability, it could be helpful if you have a mechanism in place where errors could be graded from minor errors to critical errors. This could also depend on the type of work your team delivers and how each task could impact the larger scheme of things.

GUIDANCE: This is the last and one of the most important aspects of providing feedback. Offer help. A leader is meant to guide and mentor their teams to success. One of the most critical roles for the leader is to show the way, more so when the team/member has faltered. The feedback is not truly complete unless you have shared a plan to move from that point onwards and help chalk-out a potential development plan. Once you have said your piece, let the team/member provide you with their response to the feedback. If you have followed all the steps correctly, you would have communicated that you are there to help and these errors can be corrected. Feedback sessions need to be a two-way street, although you need to be in control of how the conversation begins and ends.

The setting is Important too. If the feedback is for an individual member, make sure that the feedback is provided in a meeting room/cabin one to one. In case the feedback is meant for the members of the team, then it could be delivered to the team as a whole. A leader must avoid putting anyone in a spot, as the feedback can turn out to be counter-productive instead.

More often than not our teams are keen to do what is best for the organization. We need to value and trust that. In instances when things do not go right with a project, or there has been a consistent dip in performance, a leader can take stalk of the situation by providing clear and honest feedback.