Well, my last blog post suggested that good leadership requires that we sell feedback to our associates. I need to admit that the reason I was talking about that topic was because I was starting a series of what I call behavior reviews. In my first book, You’re In Charge…What Now? I talked about his practice. It is my view that leaders need to focus on the behaviors they observe in their associates, long before they focus on results. I am of the very string opinion that Behavior drives results, so I think we need to coach our staff to behave in ways that help hem to succeed. Hence, I am almost a fanatic about starting long before I evaluate performance to coach my direct reports on the behaviors that influence their leadership performance.
The truth is, I was probably pumping myself up for these sessions. Candidly, I send a great deal of time writing down all the key issues I needed to cover with each of my staff. Once that is done, then the most important phase starts… I need to give the feedback to my associate. That session usually entails a great deal of “editorial additions” so that I am certain that the messages are understood and with some luck, accepted. The key here is that I am always very candid about the observations, and there are clearly positive and “less than positive” segments of information. Candidly, these are really tough sessions. In fact, they wear me out because I put a huge amount of intellectual and emotional energy into them.
Well, I am half way through the sessions, and I can report that they are going well. I define well as, I got the messages delivered, we had substantive and constructive dialogue on those points and I believe that my associates will reflect on the feedback, and in several cases, have committed already to focus on both the strengths and the weaknesses. Indeed, that has been my experience in almost all of the session like this that I have conducted over the years. I have found that, although I am not always correct in my insights, I have always found my associates willing, even pleased, to pay attention to the insights. That kind of reaction make all the stress worth it.
April 30, 2008 at 10:33 am |
Doesn’t that take an incredible amount of time and energy? I am barely able to get through the “administrivia” part of my day let alone carve out time for pre-feedback sessions. I’m still looking for someone to devise a way in which we can create more hours in a day! But, having said that, I imagine that those who working for you also feel extraordinarily bonded to you and their goals as they know you are watching and are with them every step of the way.