Giving Feedback to Subordinates

Buron, McDonald-Mann

• Publisher: Center for Creative Leadership Press
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN: 9781882197392
• eBook ISBN: 9781604916942
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Liderazgo

Providing specific information about performance is key to developing the people who report to you. This guidebook tells you how to give your subordinates effective feedback so they can work more effectively, develop new skills, and grow professionally.

How to Give Feedback to Subordinates

Creating, or seizing, an opportunity to give feedback to an employee is your first task. Next, you have to make your feedback effective. Compassionate and honest feedback from you will help your subordinates develop goals, make and reinforce positive changes, raise self-confidence, and spur action.

Be Specific

To increase the quality and effectiveness of the feedback you give, we recommend using the three-step process that we teach and practice at the Center for Creative Leadership: the Situation-Behavior-Impact model. Called SBI for short, this simple feedback structure keeps your comments relevant and focused to maximize their effectiveness. Essentially, SBI means you describe the Situation in which you observed the employee, you describe the Behavior you observed, and you describe the Impact of that behavior on you and others present in that situation.

Jim, I saw that presentation you made to the Excelsior group (Situation). I liked how you picked up on their questions. I noticed that you were able to move out of your prepared presentation to address their concerns without missing a beat (Behavior). They were all nodding their heads in agreement when you answered that question about the delivery time frame. You made me confident that you were in control of all the material and information. Joel Smythe told me afterwards that our company seems to have a much better understanding of Excelsior’s situation than anyone else on their short list (Impact).

Feedback or Attaboy?

SBI feedback is not the same as a pat on the back. All of your subordinates would like to hear “You’re doing a great job,” or “We couldn’t get along without you.” Those “attaboys” might be great ego boosters but little else. The kind of feedback we support, practice, and teach informs your subordinates about what their strengths are, designates which of their skills are most valuable to the organization, and illustrates to them where you believe they have the ability to change and improve.

Do	Don’t
Specify the situation. Describe a particular occasion, such as a specific staff meeting or a particular project.	Use phrases like “always” or “never” that put subordinates on the defensive.
Specify the behavior. Tell what you actually observed in the situation you have described.	Make general, vague characterizations (“You used bad judgment” or “You made a good presentation”) that don’t focus on behavior within a specific situation.
Specify the impact. Make it clear what impact your subordinate’s specific behavior had on you and others.	Make exaggerated statements about the impact a behavior might have to the organization, or interpret the behavior’s impact as the result of some other cause.

Keep It Simple

You may be accustomed to moving quickly to the impact or effect of a subordinate’s behavior or action in order to get a solution. But if you want to encourage real development among your subordinates, slow down. Reduce your feedback to its essential elements. Recreate the situation in your mind and describe it. (“I’m glad you came to the staff meeting yesterday.”) Describe the subordinate’s behavior in that situation without embellishment. (“During the meeting you kept looking at your watch.”) Make your comments as direct as possible, and stick to the impact that the behavior had on you. (“You made me feel like you didn’t think our discussion was important.”) Directness enforces honest feedback. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Remember to go through each SBI step.

Keep Clear of Interpretations

In keeping your message simple, not only do you keep it direct and honest, but you limit it to the impact of the subordinate’s behavior. If you observe troublesome behavior, you may be tempted to go beyond describing the impact to exploring reasons for the behavior. That invites misinterpretation that can damage the trusting relationship you’ve worked so hard to build. Even if you were perfectly correct in your attributions and interpretations, your subordinates are responsible for changing their behavior. You have to give them choices for making changes, not excuses for avoiding changes.

Don’t Interpret … Bill really turn...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Why Give Feedback to Subordinates?
• When to Give Feedback to Subordinates
• How to Give Feedback to Subordinates
• How to Build the Feedback Relationship
• How to Structure the Feedback Session
• How to Handle Feedback’s Emotional Impact
• Practice Makes Permanent
• Subordinate Feedback Checklist
• Suggested Resources
• Background
• Key Point Summary