FCCS News & Insights

Leveraging Feedback & Coaching as an Interpersonal Skill and Leadership Tool

Just as an athlete turns to a coach to improve performance, employees need regular feedback to recognize where they’re performing well and to identify areas they can improve. The insights they gain from both their successes and failures provides a foundation for them to become better versions of themselves, contributing to both their own happiness and satisfaction, and their contributions to the organization.

“Without feedback, it’s difficult to know what you need to do to improve your performance,” says Chris Keller, Senior Vice President of Talent and Leadership Development with FCC Services. “Feedback is the opportunity to hear from another party how they perceive things. They may offer you a broader perspective of the impact you are having – through what you say and what you do. This can stimulate creativity, intuition and idea generation on how to do things differently.”

Feedback typically falls into two categories: reinforcing and redirecting. Reinforcing is positive feedback when someone has done something well. Redirecting is providing feedback to correct a behavior or identify an opportunity for improvement. Both are essential for continuous improvement, and in general, it’s recommended to provide more positive than negative feedback.

“The typical ratio found in the highest performing teams is five to one, positive to negative,” says Chris. “In situations of change or stress within the organization, this can be challenging to maintain, but it’s still important to find positive aspects of behavior and performance to recognize and compliment.”

However, Chris stresses that it’s essential not to “sandwich” redirecting feedback between two reinforcing feedback statements, as this negates the benefit of both. “There is a time and a place for everything. Sometimes you need to have a crucial conversation and other times it’s appropriate to call out things that are going well,” he says. Even redirecting feedback should be given within the context of demonstrating appreciation and a sincere desire to help another person improve, rather than blaming or condemning.

For feedback to be effective, it needs to be both timely and specific. A simple “good job” or “you shouldn’t have done that” doesn’t provide enough information for the recipient to recognize where they’ve done well or could improve.

Timing is also important, particularly for redirecting feedback. “If you want your message to be heard, you need to be sensitive to what the other person is going through,” says Chris. “While you might not want to get into a redirecting situation when they’re having a bad day, you also don’t want to save it all up for a bi-annual review.”

Chris also offers this general advice: Ask permission first to make sure the recipient is in the right mindset to hear your message. Make sure you explain enough of the context and consequences up front, without exaggerating the implications, and explain your perception of what has happened. Ask them what their intentions were, and, for redirecting feedback, encourage them to think for themselves about different ways they could have approached the situation. Finally, wrap up by again appreciating their performance or by encouraging a different outcome in the future, depending on the situation.

Of course, people are sometimes defensive when receiving redirecting feedback, which makes it difficult for them to get better. “If feedback is well intended and grounded in wanting to help someone improve, and you’ve recognized all the good they do while pointing out a singular situation, it’s more likely that they’ll receive it well,” says Chris. “However, if the other is still focused on offering excuses even as you point to facts or outcomes that are suboptimal, and the situation was important enough for you to bring up in the first place, you still need to hold them accountable. This can be a difficult conversation, but a critical one for both the employee and the organization.”

Several models support the specific aspects of feedback that can yield the most impactful results. The GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, What will you do differently) puts more emphasis on the recipient’s intentions and provides a coaching opportunity for them to identify potential solutions. The STAR/AR model (Situation, Task, Action, Result/Alternative action/Result) sets the context and outlines the situation, implications and outcomes of a given situation.

Jean Cantey Segal, Chief Learning Officer of Learning and Consulting Services with FCC Services recently delivered a training session to the Leadership Group at American AgCredit that focused on the STAR/AR model.

“Jean explained that in every work situation, there will be a need for both positive and negative feedback, and provided us with simple tools to deliver feedback effectively. I walked out of the session and immediately put the tools to use,” says Rachel Angress, American AgCredit’s General Counsel. “The approach ties in with what we’re doing to rebuild a culture of engaged employees, and one of the components of this is recognition. By delivering meaningful positive and negative feedback, we’ll motivate our employees and help them improve.”

Coaching to Strength is an approach that recognizes that individuals are strong in different areas, any and all of which can benefit the organization or be valuable in a specific role. Rather than working to address weaknesses, the philosophy instead capitalizes on areas of strength. This is more easily applied to a team environment, where different members can bring their individual skills to bear on a single project. Applying it on an individual level is a more nuanced process, and it’s important to recognize that the lack of some skills that aren’t natural strengths can hold a person back from career advancement.

“If you want to get the most out of the people in your organization, you need to understand their strengths and put them in a position where they can succeed by capitalizing on these strengths,” says David Brown, CEO of Western AgCredit, and an LDP participant [see related Services Spotlight article]. “Talking with your employees about what both you and they see as their strengths enables you to determine the right place for them to contribute the most to the organization, and be most satisfied in their work.”

The benefits of creating a culture of feedback are significant: “Studies have shown that positive feedback environments had the lowest rate of turnover, sick days and health care costs, so we can start to see the benefits of teaching people to use feedback constructively,” says Sarah Spivey, who teaches the “I Love Feedback” module that’s a part of FCC Services’ Leadership Development offerings.

However, the process of establishing such a cultural change can be challenging, and will take commitment from top leadership, leadership by example within their own teams and a foundation of trust within the organization. Leaders need to demonstrate that in a supportive team environment, people can be open and honest with each other, including their very senior executives.

“When you create a culture with open and candid communication, with real-time feedback that’s clear but never cruel, you’re creating an environment where people feel safe and trust each other to talk about their successes and challenges in a productive way,” says Jean. “This helps an organization to grow, to innovate and to be creative in how they pursue opportunities and tackle challenges.”

FCC Services consultants provide a variety of consulting and training on culture, feedback, coaching and communications. For more information, please email info@fccservices.com and we’ll put you in touch with the consultant that is right for your organization and challenge.