Feedback & Feedforward
Hi there,
In this blog, I'm going to write about the practice of providing and receiving feedback and feed-forward from the HR Standpoint in the context of workplace.
Essentially, feedback is an art that is aimed at providing the right tips for an employee or a co-worker to understand, realise, reflect and improve his approaches towards a task or behavior. Feedback is an art and not a science, let's understand that so it will be easy to understand what follows. There are couple of methodologies that can be adopted to be sure that the feedback given is absolutely objective in nature.There are humongous doubts among the employees on how to give feedback to a co-worker, a subordinate or to a reporting manager. When the giver is clear about the purpose of giving feedback as I stated above the insecurity surrounding the art disappears. There are several myths around feedback. Let me throw some light to dispel that,
1. Feedback is only for juniors and subordinates - This is a common belief that many of us holds but this isn't right. One may give or receive feedback from co-workers, reporting managers, employees from other function with whom you interact with and also from the subordinates. You may either give or receive from a junior or a senior employee in the organization.
2. Only a reporting manager can provide feedback to his subordinates - This is not true it can be vice-versa. There is no hard and fast rule like this. As, giving a feedback essentially helps a person to change or alter his/ her behavior there is no conditions in this.
3. Feedback is about criticizing your performance of the past - Certainly, not. Feedback is about highlighting the best work done, and clarifying the areas of improvement. The amount may vary depending upon the nature of job and the performance level. Meaning, if the person is rated needs improvement there may be a lot of areas where that person would have to work on to change himself.
Giving Feedback
As mentioned above, giving feedback is an art. There needs to be preparation, an observation on the receiver with regard to his performance and behavior. While giving a feedback the giver must ensure that he doesn't crosses the line and hurt the self esteem of the receiver, mind that the feedback is aimed at improving the performance. There are methodologies that can be adopted for beginners or experienced professional who want to struck the chord.
1. Sandwich Model
In a sandwich model the receiver will be appreciated, recognized for the areas where he has performed well, then his areas of improvement meaning the grey areas where the candidate needs improvement is to be highlighted and conclude the feedback process on a high note by how the good performance has impacted the team and the organization at large. This ensures that the candidate's work is rapped up well and given to him in a palatable manner. It is in the hands of the giver to ensure that whatever points highlighted are supported with valid data. This is where compilation of work, observations are critical. This helps win the trust of the receiver.
2. STAR Method
This is another method which is also predominantly applied in hiring a candidate. In this process data plays a very critical role, a write up on the candidate's performance, any lacuna helps as a support. In STAR ,
S - Situation : One must describe the situation as to When? Where? and Who?
T - Task : Expected standards of performance and behaviour on a task/at work.
A - Action : Was there a gap or excellence between what is expected from the standards and what is executed.
R - Result : An outcome or impact of such action on the task, team and for the organization at large.
Receiving Feedback
Emotional Control - The receiver of feedback must have full control over his emotions to avoid impulsive responses. He needs to listen carefully, clarify his doubts by seeking instances, reports thereby the giver will be encouraged to speak more. Bear in mind, noone gives a feedback to criticize your work or your contribution, at-least in the professionally managed corporate environment it doesn't happen that way.
Reflect - If you have noted the points highlighted in the meeting, you can imbibe that and reflect on your own performance against your achievements and grey areas. This helps you to perform at your best.
Reassure - Once you receive and reflect on it you may take a while and return to the giver reassurance that you have completely understood your strengths and areas of improvement therefore, work to improve his skills and competencies further in the interest of the organization.
Feedforward
I'm coining a new terminology here inspired by my mentors in the profession of Human Resource Management. We are used to giving and receiving Feedback, as the name indicates it is based on what you have done however, feed-forward is quite rare or not heard about...Feedforward is aimed at giving the right feedback that helps the individual to improvise his performance and prevent it to grow further in the corporate career. Essentially, it must act as a Feed for his to move forward and not regret the past.
Hope the above blog helps you, If it was some help to you give an Objective Sandwich/STAR based feedback in the Comments section below.
"Be the best; beat the best".
In this blog, I'm going to write about the practice of providing and receiving feedback and feed-forward from the HR Standpoint in the context of workplace.
Essentially, feedback is an art that is aimed at providing the right tips for an employee or a co-worker to understand, realise, reflect and improve his approaches towards a task or behavior. Feedback is an art and not a science, let's understand that so it will be easy to understand what follows. There are couple of methodologies that can be adopted to be sure that the feedback given is absolutely objective in nature.There are humongous doubts among the employees on how to give feedback to a co-worker, a subordinate or to a reporting manager. When the giver is clear about the purpose of giving feedback as I stated above the insecurity surrounding the art disappears. There are several myths around feedback. Let me throw some light to dispel that,
1. Feedback is only for juniors and subordinates - This is a common belief that many of us holds but this isn't right. One may give or receive feedback from co-workers, reporting managers, employees from other function with whom you interact with and also from the subordinates. You may either give or receive from a junior or a senior employee in the organization.
2. Only a reporting manager can provide feedback to his subordinates - This is not true it can be vice-versa. There is no hard and fast rule like this. As, giving a feedback essentially helps a person to change or alter his/ her behavior there is no conditions in this.
3. Feedback is about criticizing your performance of the past - Certainly, not. Feedback is about highlighting the best work done, and clarifying the areas of improvement. The amount may vary depending upon the nature of job and the performance level. Meaning, if the person is rated needs improvement there may be a lot of areas where that person would have to work on to change himself.
Giving Feedback
As mentioned above, giving feedback is an art. There needs to be preparation, an observation on the receiver with regard to his performance and behavior. While giving a feedback the giver must ensure that he doesn't crosses the line and hurt the self esteem of the receiver, mind that the feedback is aimed at improving the performance. There are methodologies that can be adopted for beginners or experienced professional who want to struck the chord.
1. Sandwich Model
In a sandwich model the receiver will be appreciated, recognized for the areas where he has performed well, then his areas of improvement meaning the grey areas where the candidate needs improvement is to be highlighted and conclude the feedback process on a high note by how the good performance has impacted the team and the organization at large. This ensures that the candidate's work is rapped up well and given to him in a palatable manner. It is in the hands of the giver to ensure that whatever points highlighted are supported with valid data. This is where compilation of work, observations are critical. This helps win the trust of the receiver.
2. STAR Method
This is another method which is also predominantly applied in hiring a candidate. In this process data plays a very critical role, a write up on the candidate's performance, any lacuna helps as a support. In STAR ,
S - Situation : One must describe the situation as to When? Where? and Who?
T - Task : Expected standards of performance and behaviour on a task/at work.
A - Action : Was there a gap or excellence between what is expected from the standards and what is executed.
R - Result : An outcome or impact of such action on the task, team and for the organization at large.
Receiving Feedback
Emotional Control - The receiver of feedback must have full control over his emotions to avoid impulsive responses. He needs to listen carefully, clarify his doubts by seeking instances, reports thereby the giver will be encouraged to speak more. Bear in mind, noone gives a feedback to criticize your work or your contribution, at-least in the professionally managed corporate environment it doesn't happen that way.
Reflect - If you have noted the points highlighted in the meeting, you can imbibe that and reflect on your own performance against your achievements and grey areas. This helps you to perform at your best.
Reassure - Once you receive and reflect on it you may take a while and return to the giver reassurance that you have completely understood your strengths and areas of improvement therefore, work to improve his skills and competencies further in the interest of the organization.
Feedforward
I'm coining a new terminology here inspired by my mentors in the profession of Human Resource Management. We are used to giving and receiving Feedback, as the name indicates it is based on what you have done however, feed-forward is quite rare or not heard about...Feedforward is aimed at giving the right feedback that helps the individual to improvise his performance and prevent it to grow further in the corporate career. Essentially, it must act as a Feed for his to move forward and not regret the past.
Hope the above blog helps you, If it was some help to you give an Objective Sandwich/STAR based feedback in the Comments section below.
"Be the best; beat the best".
Comments
Post a Comment