There is a better way to handle disciplinary issues, based on the organization’s need for top-level performance by all employees. When discipline is approached in a logical, positive framework, focused on bringing performance up to par, the emotion can be taken out of the equation and real improvement can be made. Every workplace is different, but the relationships between employees and their supervisors, and between employees and the organization as a whole, are based on a fundamental requirement: wages are traded for performance. When performance is not up to standards, it is the manager’s job to work with the employee to bring them back up to the required level.

Traditionally, we have focused on punishment as the most direct way to deal with performance problems. But this approach can backfire when applied to adults on the job, because it can be humiliating to the employee. And, if it is humiliating, the manager’s actions will lead to anger, resentment, and reduced performance – not the improvement they were hoping for. Every disciplinary action is different because you are working with unique individuals who have life experiences, expectations, and emotional needs you know nothing about. Managers need a process that allows for these circumstances, and for the employee involved to play a key role in the resolution of the problem. You also need a process that focuses on the issues, not the personalities involved.

The first step in a disciplinary process – and the only one this article deals with – is identifying the performance gap. By focusing on the gap between expected behavior and actual behavior, supervisors can take an objective approach to the problem, leaving the subjective and personal issues out of it. Emotional responses to employee problems cloud the issue and inhibit reaching the true goal: improved performance.

Activity: Identifying the Performance Problem

The most important part of identifying and understanding a performance problem is separating the facts from your judgments and opinions.

Listen to the difference in these two ways of describing the same problem:

• You are expected to complete and submit your daily production reports before leaving for the day.
• You’ve caused a lot of screw-ups on the second shift because of your lazy attitude toward production paperwork.

What is the difference between these statements?
• The first approach deals with the facts – behaviors that are observable.
• The second statement is loaded with judgment and opinion – subjective statements that attack the person, rather than focusing on the problem.

Looking at this situation, why might these production reports be important?
• They may affect other shifts, customer deliveries, the ordering of new parts, or other downstream processes.

So what is the real purpose of discipline in this situation?

Look for the following answer:
• To improve performance!

The purpose of employee discipline is to close the performance gap between what you need the employee to do and what they are actually doing.  Let’s see how we can apply this to our own employee disciplinary problems.

REFER to the Worksheet. Participants will work individually on this activity.
(Allow 3-4 minutes)

SAY:
The best way to identify an employee performance problem is by comparing the desired performance with the employee’s actual performance – what you expect versus what you’re actually getting.

Think about a current disciplinary problem in your department and the employee associated with it (no names please!).

• Describe the performance problem in section 1.
• List a few bullets or key words that describe what you expect from the employee in the left column of section 2.
• List what the employee is actually doing in the right column of section 2. In effect, you are performing a gap analysis.
• Think about the situation objectively when you fill in section 3. If the employee is not aware of the problem, you need to understand why. If you haven’t set expectations properly, your meeting shouldn’t be about discipline, it should instead be about making your performance expectations clear and then monitoring the results.

DISCUSSION
Go around the room, asking for examples of the participant’s disciplinary incidents.

WORKSHEET

Excerpted from the Leader’s Guide to the CRM Learning video program, Positive Discipline.

Training Resource: Positive Discipline.Users are consistently thrilled with this program’s ability to help managers overcome their reluctance to addressing performance gaps, engage in productive performance discussions and end up with positive outcomes.

According to the latest studies, the average employee is delivering only 50% of what they are capable of offering to your organization. As a leader, you’re frustrated by this lack of performance. You’d like to clone your high performers so you can become more results oriented like the entrepreneurial companies you see in the marketplace.

To capture the talents and potential of today’s knowledge workers, you must recognize the dramatic rise in numbers of these employees. Knowledge workers are the individuals who use their ‘brains’ instead of their ‘brawn’ to get work done. These are the information specialists, researchers, marketing and sales experts whose talents drive the success of your business. To ensure high performance, you must manage these talented individuals differently than employees of the past.  Their talents can help you take your business to the top. But like a spirited racehorse, they must be handled with care.

Avoid these five deadly sins and you’ll capture knowledge workers’ discretionary energy and build enthusiasm:

#1. Focus only on what’s wrong.
The “no news is good news” approach to leading knowledge workers is a recipe for disaster. You might think that if employees aren’t screwing up, they don’t need to hear from you. But knowledge workers want to be recognized. They need your attention. Recognizing progress and giving recognition fosters their talents, helps them move in the right direction and fuels their enthusiasm. Avoid focusing only on what’s wrong and acknowledge what’s going right.

#2. Ignore poor performers.
High-performing knowledge workers want you to deal with poor performers – otherwise the problem lands in their lap. You must address performance challenges by coaching the employee, reassigning the individual to an area where their talents are best suited – or remove them altogether. In any case, pay attention to problems and take corrective action. Don’t let laggards linger, derail your progress and de-motivate other employees.

#3. Overlook boredom and talent misfit.
Job uncertainty and fear may prevent employees from speaking up about a change that’s needed. It’s your job to notice when individuals lose interest, struggle in their current position, or slack off for some unknown reason. Address these issues head-on instead of allowing them to continue. There’s no joy in just getting by. You don’t help employees by allowing a bad fit to continue. Tough love with self and others is part of moving into the new economy.

#4. Let them say ‘YES’ to everything.
Help knowledge workers curb their appetite to work on interesting projects that are unrelated to business priorities. No matter how exciting a project is, you must help employees discern: “Is this project contributing to the goals of the business? Can I justify the time and energy I’m spending on it? Will this initiative help us achieve the outcomes we want?” Many times, knowledge workers bite off more than they can chew. A wise leader helps employees set limits and say ‘no’ – for their own sake as well as for the business.

#5. Fail to give feedback.
In corporate life, no one wants to hear “This isn’t working.” But individuals need to know when their attitudes and behaviors are causing others a problem. No matter how exceptional the person is, he or she can make a mistake – sometimes without knowing it. A wise leader helps individuals recognize problems and learn from problems. Don’t wait until there is a crisis to raise a touchy subject and give feedback. Regular feedback helps employees grow.

Your primary role as a leader is to help knowledge workers contribute their talents. Involve them in key decisions and welcome their input. Encourage collaboration with others who will stretch their minds and capabilities. Make sure employee talents are visible, seen and appreciated by others in the organization. Remember, knowledge workers want to use their talents to help your business grow.  Put these ideas into action and watch teamwork and performance skyrocket!

Article source: http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/avoid-these-5-leadership-pitfalls-when-leading-knowledge-workers-2278768.html#ixzz13P7qNDpi

Training Resource: Not Everyone Gets a Trophy is a wise and humorous look at the challenges of training and managing the newest generation of employees.  This dynamic program is packed with laughter, stories and practical examples of techniques that any manager can use to transform these young employees into “the highest performing workforce in history.”

Giving Positive Feedback

Positive feedback can be given any time, either in public or private. Positive feedback is where we praise a desired attitude, behaviour or performance. The effect of positive feedback is that the person is encouraged to repeat this behaviour and is also motivated to improve. It also builds self confidence and self esteem in the Team Member.

The reverse is also true! Lack of positive feedback is discouraging, demotivating and will lead to a poor performance level. The employee gets the impression that no one cares whether they do well or not, and that their work has no value!

Giving Constructive Feedback

The other type of feedback is Constructive Feedback, or Corrective Feedback. Again, this is essential to performance and motivation. Do not think in terms of NEGATIVE feedback as this is not a useful thought. The aim is not to point out the negative or the bad. If you do this, you will find that the person does not improve. You will find yourself saying the same things over and over again.

Giving constructive feedback is about TRAINING the other person to change or improve. If you do this well, you training is successful and will see the desired result. Giving constructive feedback is about identifying an area for improvement and working out solutions to improve or correct this. In giving the feedback, first identify the current goal or task and why this is important to the Company and to the role. Secondly, state clearly the undesirable attitude, behaviour or performance, with factual evidence. Thirdly, state the desired attitude, behaviour or performance, or better still, ask encouraging questions to help the other person make constructive suggestions. Lastly, work with them to put a strategy in place for achieving the desired goal.

Guidelines for Giving Feedback Effectively

1. Understand that the feedback is primarily a training need. Be aware that you are the supervisor, and are ultimately responsible for this staff’s behaviour. This feedback is aimed at improving knowledge and behaviour.

2. The key is to talk about the behaviour, performance or attitude rather than the person.

3. Have a good working knowledge of your own learning style and the other types of learning styles. This will help you avoid the pitfall of explaining in a way only YOU would understand. Other people are not always like you!

4. Know your Team Member, their personality style and their unique learning style – Are they a visual, verbal, reading & writing, tactile? Do they have language and cultural complexities?

5. Know your own limitations – If you are giving feedback on a volatile situation, make sure you can recognize your own emotions, and are aware that you may need to calm down before feedback.

6. Give constructive feedback in private – Never give constructive feedback in a group. You would not want to receive it in front of your staff!

7. Always start with positive – When giving feedback you always start with at least two positive observations. This will start the meeting off on a positive note.

8. Look at the individual – make eye contact, don’t avoid. If you do, they may question the validity of your session.

9. No apologies – do not apologize for their actions that need correction. Don’t say, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but…”

10.  Give constructive feedback in an honest and diplomatic way – that is, while pinpointing the target behaviour, state the constructive measures to change the behaviour. Remember, constructive feedback is a means to improving situations by finding a solution to the problem. Give a due date for follow up. The point is to teach a new skill where there was a deficiency.

11.  End with a positive – If it was a particularly lengthy/ gruesome session, interact with the staff to make sure things are ok. Be sure that you have checked in with them before you leave for the day. You want to make sure they are not going home disappointed.

12.  Ask if they have any questions – if you have given a feedback session, you may not have realised that you were the only one talking for quite some time. Always give the staff the opportunity to seek further knowledge or assistance.

Kate Tammemagi specialises in Management Training in Ireland. She designs and delivers People Management Training and Customer Care Training.

Need help in this area? CRM Learning’s Positive Discipline training program helps leaders get beyond the belief that confronting negative performance has to be punitive in nature and shows them — with a simple 5-step process — how performance discussions can actually be a tool for developing employees.

“A Little More Time” Role Play Scenario

Marketing VP Kimberly is preparing her 45-person consulting firm’s major proposal for a year’s worth of work from a major client.  She knows that demonstrating the staff’s depth of experience will be the key to winning this contract.  That means a strong, focused, well-written resume section in the proposal document.

At the weekly managers’ meeting, Kimberly asks Sam to take responsibility for collecting the resumés and background information from seven team leaders who will have key roles on the project.  Sam will need to make sure the resumés are up-to-date, consistent in format and clearly focused on the client’s industry.  Only four of this group are present at the meeting.  Sam is one of the seven.  He willingly accepts ownership for the task and aims to please.

It is three weeks until the proposal is due.  Sam and Kimberly meet to discuss how the resumés will be used in the proposal—but they don’t spend time discussing the actual process of collecting and updating them.  Kimberly expresses her appreciation to Sam for taking on the task, and he agrees to have the updated resumés to her in ten days. No problem—it all seems straightforward enough.

Ten days later, 3:30am.  Sam is working at home the morning before his deadline.  He is rewriting two of the resumés, and he is missing another two altogether.  Sam was certain he had emailed these managers to request their resumés,—they work in one of the firm’s out-of-state offices and he doesn’t know them well.  His own resumé and the ones he received from two other team leaders are in good shape.  He decides to ask Kimberly for two more days to complete the assignment.

Set Up the Role Play

Instruct participants to read the “A Little More Time” scenario (above). Have them role play two ways of concluding the scenario.

1) First, role play Kimberly responding when Sam comes to her to ask for several more days to complete the assignment.  One partner plays Kimberly, the other plays Sam. Allow no more than five minutes for this role play.

2) Second, role play a scene between Sam and one of the team leaders who has not provided their information to Sam.  One partner plays Sam, the other plays the team leader. Allow no more than five minutes for this role play.

Debrief the Role Play Activity

Ask the participants:

1. How comfortable were you in the first role play where Kimberly was responding Sam’s request for more time? 

2. Did people find it more difficult to hold a peer accountable in the second role play? If so, what made it more difficult?

3. What are some things a person should do when holding another person accountable?

Look for responses such as:

·       First, ask yourself, “How may I have contributed to this poor result—was I clear about what I needed?”

·       Don’t jump to conclusions, hear the other person out.

·       In the discussion, use “I” statements such as “I have trouble keeping my commitments when I don’t receive your information by the deadline.”

·       Work together on a plan to rectify the situation and determine how to keep it from happening again.  

·       Ask “What do you need from me? More notice, more help, better instructions, etc.?”)

4. What are the consequences of not confronting those (either subordinates or co-workers) who have not kept a commitment?

This material excerpted from the Leader’s Guide to the video program, Accountability That Works!.

Customer expectations with Positive Discipline were met or exceeded more than 90 percent of the time, the study found. Both individuals and organizations have rated their experience as “highly satisfactory” in an independently-conducted study.

About the Video: Positive Discipline takes a common-sense, non-adversarial approach to one of the toughest parts of being a manager or supervisor. What’s usually a nightmare becomes an opportunity – the key is putting the ownership of the solution in the hands of the employee. This performance-based program offers practical, step-by-step methods for overcoming problem behaviors.

Survey Methodology: A variety of clients participated in the survey, from business, education non-profit and government sectors. Interviews lasted 30 minutes each, and each client was told that answers would be anonymous and aggregated into a central database in order to ensure unbiased feedback.

Training expectations: Training frequency varied widely – some clients reported using the program once every three to four months for managers and supervisors; others six times a year as part of a leadership training program, and one client uses it regularly as part of an ongoing supervisory program for all managers.

“I wanted scenarios, examples and I wanted a methodology to handle discipline situations”, one client said. The program delivered with a practical, step-by-step process. One client specifically mentioned the “journaling” process that was particularly helpful with tardiness and attendance issues. “Managers now have specifics when talking to employees.”

Most clients reported purchasing the program simply to help managers and supervisors deal with difficult situations. “They were struggling with this,” one participant said. “They don’t want to feel like the bad guy.”

Clients especially liked the program’s performance-based methodology. “We wanted something that provided a solid outcome.” Other respondents praised the program’s adaptability, saying the complete package provided solutions for managers and supervisors on a variety of levels.

How Behavior Changed: “After the last class, several managers in operations e-mailed me saying they’d been able to handle the difficult situations they’ve been dealing with,” one client reported. “Our front-line supervisors have used the skills from the program and reported it working well – they found it much less adversarial.”

One participant said the program was especially helpful for first-time managers. “It has the potential to reduce employee litigation, improve morale and reduce turnover,” another client thought.

And everyone agreed on this comment: “Anecdotally I have heard that it saves time and a lot of trouble – we’re learning to deal with things before they completely explode.”

View Trailer or Full Length Preview of Positive Discipline

Step 1: Extend Your Reach
Managers often report that one of the most satisfying parts of their job is when they have the opportunity to share their knowledge, experiences and insight with others. Reaching beyond the daily responsibilities of their job and profoundly affecting the growth and development of others brings the manager immediate rewards and the organization long lasting benefits. Fast-track mentoring education begins with “where and how” to offer help to learning partners.
Today´s employees want to learn and grow. Their own success is very important to them. The employee who cannot get answers, cannot learn or find out how to be successful, often grows frustrated and leaves the company.

Step 2: Listen, Don’t Preach
The mentor’s job doesn’t start with giving advice – it begins with listening. A mentor needs to hear what their partners want from the process. It’s also critical to learn about development needs and expectations. A good mentor must learn to explore the focus and understand the goals of their partners.

Step 3: Do More Than Teach
The traditional mentor was a teacher-but today it takes much more to be a successful mentor. There are four different conversation styles that can be used to stimulate learning and transmit knowledge quickly. They have been proven to promote learning and transmit knowledge quickly. Mentors need to learn how to share their stories, encourage dialogue, debrief their partner’s experiences, and help build network connections for their partners.
In a world where overnight obsolescence threatens skills and knowledge, success calls for creative ways to foster learning, improvement and everlasting experimentation.

Step 4: Define Actions for Each
Mentoring partners have equal responsibilities in making the process work. They need specific action plans so that both mentor and partner can measure the progress of their work together. The Mentoring process can be a great source of personal learning and satisfaction for everyone. But much of its success depends on finding the right balance between doing too much and doing too little.
As technology continues to change and the world continues to move faster, the value of using knowledge effectively in an organization will continue to skyrocket.

How Everyone Benefits
While the time-honored practice of mentoring has always been with us, it is now more than ever a dynamic tool for building collaborative relationships. Organizations need a simple but elegant process that demystifies the mentoring journey. It also should work to develop the mentor as he or she works to develop others.
A successful process should provide mentors and their partners with specifics on what to do, what to talk about, and how to take action. Mentoring in this fast-track format may well be one of the most powerful ways to engage and retain both employees and managers. It should also provide a payback for the organization so that talent can be recognized and grown.

Reprinted from hr.com, your source for knowledge, expertise and resources.

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Business Week reports that over 35% of employees who are not being mentored within 12 months of being hired, are actively looking for a job!

Many mentoring programs begin with high energy and good intentions, but end up with little impact and less long-term follow-through. In our current organizational climate there is a pressing need for a practical way to educate managers and leaders quickly so they see mentoring as a positive experience rather than a burden. The task is to integrate a simple and effective method to give managers, team leaders and individual contributors the basic skills and practical how-tos of mentoring others that makes it part of their on-going responsibilities and not an add-on.

It’s a rare organization today that can afford to take mentoring partners offsite for extended training. The alternative is to provide an easy self-study process or brief facilitated program that highlights the most important aspects of the mentoring process and gets mentors started immediately.

Mentoring, when combined with training, increases a manager’s productivity by 88% according to the ASTD.

Everyone brings unique experiences and expertise to the mentoring relationship. Allowing mentors to begin with their strengths gives them confidence and comfort with the process.

Reprinted from hr.com, your source for knowledge, expertise and resources.

Need help in this area? Try When The Coach is You!
Learn the five steps to effective coaching – and you’ll see why anyone can be a great coach, regardless of their role in the organization.

2. It can be more productive to help people be “right,” than prove they were “wrong.” Negative feedback often becomes an exercise in “let me prove you were wrong.”  This tends to produce defensiveness on the part of the receiver and discomfort on the part of the sender.  Even constructively delivered feedback is often seen as negative as it necessarily involves a discussion of mistakes, shortfalls, and problems.  Feedforward, on the other hand, is almost always seen as positive because it focuses on solutions – not problems.

3. Feedforward is especially suited to successful people. Successful people like getting ideas that are aimed at helping them achieve their goals.  They tend to resist negative judgment.  We all tend to accept feedback that is consistent with the way we see ourselves.  We also tend to reject or deny feedback that is inconsistent with the way we see ourselves.  Successful people tend to have a very positive self-image.  I have observed many successful executives respond to (and even enjoy) feedforward.  I am not sure that these same people would have had such a positive reaction to feedback.

4. Feedforward can come from anyone who knows about the task. It does not require personal experience with the individual.  One very common positive reaction to the previously described exercise is that participants are amazed by how much they can learn from people that they don’t know!  For example, if you want to be a better listener, almost any fellow leader can give you ideas on how you can improve.  They don’t have to know you.  Feedback requires knowing about the person.  Feedforward just requires having good ideas for achieving the task.

5. People do not take feedforward as personally as feedback. In theory, constructive feedback is supposed to “focus on the performance, not the person”.  In practice, almost all feedback is taken personally (no matter how it is delivered).  Successful people’s sense of identity is highly connected with their work.  The more successful people are, the more this tends to be true.  It is hard to give a dedicated professional feedback that is not taken personally.  Feedforward cannot involve a personal critique, since it is discussing something that has not yet happened!  Positive suggestions tend to be seen as objective advice – personal critiques are often viewed as personal attacks.

6. Feedback can reinforce personal stereotyping and negative self-fulfilling prophecies. Feedforward can reinforce the possibility of change.  Feedback can reinforce the feeling of failure.  How many of us have been “helped” by a spouse, significant other or friend, who seems to have a near-photographic memory of our previous “sins” that they share with us in order to point out the history of our shortcomings.  Negative feedback can be used to reinforce the message, “this is just the way you are”.  Feedforward is based on the assumption that the receiver of suggestions can make positive changes in the future.

7. Face it! Most of us hate getting negative feedback, and we don´t like to give it.  I have reviewed summary 360 feedback reports for over 50 companies.  The items, “provides developmental feedback in a timely manner” and “encourages and accepts constructive criticism” almost always score near the bottom on co-worker satisfaction with leaders.  Traditional training does not seem to make a great deal of difference.  If leaders got better at providing feedback every time the performance appraisal forms were “improved”, most should be perfect by now!  Leaders are not very good at giving or receiving negative feedback.  It is unlikely that this will change in the near future.

8. Feedforward can cover almost all of the same “material” as feedback. Imagine that you have just made a terrible presentation in front of the executive committee.  Your manager is in the room.  Rather than make you “relive” this humiliating experience, your manager might help you prepare for future presentations by giving you suggestions for the future.  These suggestions can be very specific and still delivered in a positive way.  In this way your manager can “cover the same points” without feeling embarrassed and without making you feel even more humiliated.

9. Feedforward tends to be much faster and more efficient than feedback. An excellent technique for giving ideas to successful people is to say, “Here are four ideas for the future.  Please accept these in the positive spirit that they are given.  If you can only use two of the ideas, you are still two ahead.  Just ignore what doesn’t make sense for you.”  With this approach almost no time gets wasted on judging the quality of the ideas or “proving that the ideas are wrong”.  This “debate” time is usually negative; it can take up a lot of time, and it is often not very productive.  By eliminating judgment of the ideas, the process becomes much more positive for the sender, as well as the receiver.  Successful people tend to have a high need for self-determination and will tend to accept ideas that they “buy” while rejecting ideas that feel “forced” upon them.

10. Feedforward can be a useful tool to apply with managers, peers and team members. Rightly or wrongly, feedback is associated with judgment.  This can lead to very negative – or even career-limiting – unintended consequences when applied to managers or peers.  Feedforward does not imply superiority of judgment.  It is more focused on being a helpful “fellow traveler” than an “expert”.  As such it can be easier to hear from a person who is not in a position of power or authority.  An excellent team building exercise is to have each team member ask, “How can I better help our team in the future?” and listen to feedforward from fellow team members (in one-on-one dialogues.)

11. People tend to listen more attentively to feedforward than feedback. One participant in the feedforward exercise noted, “I think that I listened more effectively in this exercise than I ever do at work!”  When asked why, he responded, “Normally, when others are speaking, I am so busy composing a reply that will make sure that I sound smart – that I am not fully listening to what the other person is saying.  In feedforward the only reply that I am allowed to make is ´thank you´.  Since I don’t have to worry about composing a clever reply – I can focus all of my energy on listening to the other person!”

In summary, the intent of this article is not to imply that leaders should never give feedback or that performance appraisals should be abandoned. The intent is to show how feedforward can often be preferable to feedback in day-to-day interactions.  Aside from its effectiveness and efficiency, feedforward can make life a lot more enjoyable.  When managers are asked, “How did you feel the last time you received feedback?” their most common responses are very negative.  When managers are asked how they felt after receiving feedforward, they reply that feedforward was not only useful, it was also fun.
Quality communication-between and among people at all levels and every department and division-is the glue that holds organizations together.  By using feedforward-and by encouraging others to use it-leaders can dramatically improve the quality of communication in their organizations, ensuring that the right message is conveyed, and that those who receive it are receptive to its content.  The result is a much more dynamic, much more open organization-one whose employees focus on the promise of the future rather than dwelling on the mistakes of the past.

Reprinted from hr.com, your source for knowledge, expertise and resources.

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Providing feedback has long been considered to be an essential skill for leaders.  As they strive to achieve the goals of the organization, employees need to know how they are doing.  They need to know if their performance is in line with what their leaders expect.  They need to learn what they have done well and what they need to change.

Traditionally, this information has been communicated in the form of “downward feedback” from leaders to their employees.  Just as employees need feedback from leaders, leaders can benefit from feedback from their employees. Employees can provide useful input on the effectiveness of procedures and processes and as well as input to managers on their leadership effectiveness.  This “upward feedback” has become increasingly common with the advent of 360 degree multi-rater assessments.

But there is a fundamental problem with all types of feedback: it focuses on a past, on what has already occurred-not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. As such, feedback can be limited and static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.

Over the past several years, I have observed more than ten thousand leaders as they participated in a fascinating experiential exercise.  In the exercise, participants are each asked to play two roles. In one role, they are asked provide feedforward* – that is, to give someone else suggestions for the future and help as much as they can.  In the second role, they are asked to accept feedforward-that is, to listen to the suggestions for the future and learn as much as they can.  The exercise typically lasts for 10-15 minutes, and the average participant has 6-7 dialogue sessions.

In the exercise participants are asked to:

• Pick one behavior that they would like to change.  Change in this behavior should make a significant, positive difference in their lives.

• Describe this behavior to randomly selected fellow participants. This is done in one-on-one dialogues.  It can be done quite simply, such as, “I want to be a better listener.”

• Ask for feedforward-for two suggestions for the future that might help them achieve a positive change in their selected behavior.  If participants have worked together in the past, they are not allowed to give ANY feedback about the past.  They are only allowed to give ideas for the future.

• Listen attentively to the suggestions and take notes.  Participants are not allowed to comment on the suggestions in any way.  They are not allowed to critique the suggestions or even to make positive judgmental statements, such as, “That’s a good idea.”

• Thank the other participants for their suggestions.

• Ask the other persons what they would like to change.

• Provide feedforward – two suggestions aimed at helping the other person change.

• Say, “You are welcome.” when thanked for the suggestions.  The entire process of both giving and receiving feedforward usually takes about two minutes.

• Find another participant and keep repeating the process until the exercise is stopped.

When the exercise is finished, I ask participants to provide one word that best describes their reaction to this experience.  I ask them to complete the sentence, “This exercise was …”.  The words provided are almost always extremely positive, such as “great”, “energizing”, “useful” or “helpful.”  The most common word mentioned is “fun!”
What is the last word that most of us think about when we receive feedback, coaching and developmental ideas?  Fun!

*The term “feedforward” was coined in a discussion that I had with Jon Katzenbach, author of The Wisdom of Teams, Real Change Leaders and Peak Performance.

Reprinted from hr.com, your source for knowledge, expertise and resources.

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Performance appraisal, practiced in approximately 80% of workplaces, gives supervisors and employees alike the wrong notions about feedback. The idea of a formal rating and written evaluation has conditioned us to think that feedback is something that is initiated by the supervisor as a once-a-year, formal, sit-down event. However, feedback is available to everyone every day. Feedback is not given mostly because people don’t ask for it – they’re just not aware that they can ask for it, and many people lack the skills to get the information they need.

Feedback doesn’t happen at appraisal time because the process unintentionally promotes fear and focuses on too many things. The fact that the appraisal is given by the boss, a written document is created, the employee signs it, and it goes in the personnel file stages a formal moment-of-truth discussion, rather than an open, personal conversation and exchange about how the work is going. The ratings themselves get in the way. Most people think of themselves as top performers – 80% of people see themselves in the top quarter of all performers! For many people, anything less than a top rating is demoralizing and discouraging, killing any interest in a conversation about improving performance. Worse yet, appraisals tied to pay raises, promotion eligibility, and even discipline, take
the focus away from performance and improvement – often the conversation becomes argumentative and defensive.

How can we create workplaces where people regularly and openly receive feedback and use it to improve?

Three measures will take you there:
1. Educate everyone in the organization on the true nature of feedback.
2. Train everyone in the skills of receiving feedback.
3. Abolish performance appraisals.

Sounds crazy and radical? Read on.
Contrary to popular misperceptions, people want on-the-job feedback—they want to know how they are doing, what is going well, and what things do they need to work on. The annual appraisal, however, steeply inculcates into to our work culture the idea that feedback is something the boss initiates and doles out in shovels-full at a formal quarterly or annual meeting. Employees pass up opportunities to ask for the specific feedback they need in their day-to-day work, not only from the boss, but from co-workers, customers, and others.

When people learn the true dynamics of feedback, they are more likely to take advantage of it. Feedback is effective only if people hear the message and are open to using the information for improvement. Unless the conditions are right, the feedback will not be heard and people will be defensive about using it to improve.

Feedback is heard and effective in helping people when most or all of the following conditions are present:
- The feedback giver is a credible source. The giver has expertise, knowledge, or is known to be a source of valid information.

- The feedback giver is trustworthy. The giver is sincere and can be trusted and respected.

- The feedback is conveyed with good intentions. The giver either has the receiver’s best interests at heart, or it is otherwise apparent that the feedback is intended to serve a worthy purpose and is not self-serving.

- The timing and circumstances of the feedback are appropriate. Effective feedback is timely and conveyed under conditions that are conducive for learning. For example, it’s conveyed at a time that the receiver is open to feedback. Also, most people prefer to receive negative feedback privately.

- The feedback is given in a personal and interactive manner. The feedback is given in person so the receiver can observe the giver’s facial expressions and body language, and has an opportunity to ask questions and clarify the message.

- The feedback message is clear. The feedback successfully communicates a clear message or new information about something the receiver has done, not done, or needs to do.

- The feedback is helpful to the receiver. The message contains good information or new insights that are useful or enlightening.

If you ask people about times that feedback meant something to them, they invariably will identify most of the above points. Helping employees to see this will alter their expectations about feedback and enable them to recognize the most ideal feedback resources and opportunities.

People will need some training, too. While most feedback training aims at developing the supervisor’s skills of giving feedback, companies need to train everyone on how to receive feedback.

The often-overlooked skills of receiving feedback are many:
- A receiver needs to know how to ask for feedback, whom to ask, and when to seek it.

- A receiver must know how to display an openness to feedback.

- A receiver needs to have the skill of asking the right questions to ensure that the feedback is specific. (“How am I doing?” is usually too vague to elicit useful information.)

- A receiver must understand the value of repeating and rephrasing the message heard to confirm that the message was clearly understood.

- A receiver must further learn what to do with feedback and how to sort out what is useful and what is not (for example, recognizing that some criticism must be taken with a grain of salt, rather than fully accepting and over-reacting to someone’s opinion.).

Once people learn the above skills and recognize the ever-present opportunities for feedback, helpful feedback will be given and received in your workplace. People readily understand this, but don’t understand how eliminating appraisal altogether is helpful. An organization unintentionally sends people many wrong messages when it continues formal appraisals. It tends to emphasize that feedback is more the boss’s responsibility in a formal context. The use of ratings engender fear – between appraisals, people will wonder whether the negative feedback they are receiving will be put on their appraisal. This fear impedes the kind of relaxed conversation that needs to occur.

In the absence of formal, mandated feedback through appraisal, people will be more likely, with training and education, to ask for feedback. When people seek their own feedback at a time that is most beneficial for them, they will be more open to receiving the feedback. An added bonus is that it will be easier for the supervisor and other respected sources to give critical feedback at the time it is requested.

Moving away from appraisal shifts employees’ perception of feedback to broader options that are more effective in the new workplace. More and more, supervisors are responsible for large numbers of people at scattered locations, and increasingly the supervisors´ occupational background or expertise is in a different field than the employee supervised (for example, a news editor supervising a photographer). With employees owning the feedback process, they can seek feedback from people around them or select the best person to provide the kind of feedback they are seeking. (The photographer can seek feedback from a more skilled photographer.)

Dropping appraisal does not mean supervisors cannot or should not initiate giving someone feedback. The change is more about enabling employees to move from dependency to being responsible for themselves as adult workers. In any case, the supervisor can and must counsel the employees exhibiting significant performance deficiencies, whether asked for or not. When the
situation is serious, feedback can always be provided in writing to protect the company in the event of a legal challenge.

Across the nation, scores of companies and organizations in manufacturing, retail and service, finance, healthcare, education, and government have abolished appraisal or pared away most of the process. This has resulted in a happier, healthier work climate and improved performance and productivity for the entire organization.

Copyright 2007. Reprinted with permission from www.hr.com, your community for knowledge, expertise and resources.