Feedback: The No-Cost, High-Impact Improvement You Can Do Today

By Todd Gettelfinger

Feedback is to business like flossing is to dental care. Neither costs much and both have clear, well-documented benefits. Hardly anyone would argue against doing either of them. Yet many people just don’t do it at all, and others do it only occasionally. We’ll skip the discussion about why people floss or not; instead, this article will help you brush up on feedback.

Do you regularly seek feedback on how you are doing? Does your company encourage everyone to speak up and give their two cents? There are several of you out there who can answer yes. However, most of you probably answered no to these questions (or should have). As companies and individuals try to do more with less and stand out from their competition, we suggest that getting good at giving and receiving feedback is one of the best no-cost, high-improvement solutions.

For many companies and individuals, using feedback is an underutilized resource to improve themselves or their organizations. What do we mean by feedback? In this context, feedback is simply the gathering of observations, issues, and suggestions from others. Feedback is critical to understanding how you and your company are perceived as well as getting information about what you do well and what you don’t do well. It’s information that’s hard to observe objectively by yourself.

The payback of getting feedback is difficult to measure directly. However, if you consider the positive impact of good feedback, it’s not hard to see that benefits can pile up quickly. Take a moment and think of the companies and people that you’ve worked with that were able to get good feedback. Answer the questions below relative to those companies or people:

• Were they able to see issues and opportunities faster and more clearly? 
• Did they avoid false starts and were able to solve problems quickly?
• Did they have better and more open communication?
• Did they create an organization that challenged each other to get better?
• Were the people that work with them happier?

If you answered yes, feedback was likely an essential component for them.

On the cost side of the value equation, often the best feedback is gathered using inexpensive and quick methods. Examples include the old comment cards, meeting evaluation forms, or, the best method, just asking:

• How did we do?
• Would you give us an “A” grade?
• What should we do to make it better?

Why Don't We Get Good Feedback?

So, if feedback is simple, effective, and inexpensive, why don’t people use it more successfully? Although most people say they would love to get more and better feedback, here are three reasons people don’t get good feedback:

1. They don’t ask for it. People don’t ask for feedback because of their ego, skill deficiencies, and their fear of actually having to do something with the feedback. Or they are just going through the motions and are insincere when they ask for feedback. Then they get insincere responses.

Michael felt that he was right and that soliciting input from others was unnecessary and a waste of time. After alienating his team and peers, his mentor Meredith noticed that his ideas were meeting resistance and people subtly sabotaged him on occasion. Meredith was able to convince Michael that he should ask for input and feedback as a way to not only improve on his ideas, but to get buy-in from others. However, Michael still just paid lip service to this advice and occasionally asked people what they thought without really valuing their input.

2. They focus on the wrong things. When receiving feedback, often people don’t listen and instead apply filters to what is being said. Even worse, they are too busy explaining themselves and sounding insecure and defensive. It’s hard for someone to truly understand the feedback when they are too busy talking. This results in missing the good points and discouraging the person from giving you feedback in the future.

Pam’s manager was extremely effective at giving and receiving feedback. She saw the value that her boss got from using feedback effectively. She tried diligently to ask for feedback; however, she wasn’t able to get others to be open with her and give her useful feedback. When Pam asked for feedback, people were used to it so they were ready to give it. However, they noted that Pam was always too busy trying to explain herself. Additionally, they would say, she was quick to jump to conclusions and didn’t get the point.

3. They ask the wrong questions. They ask questions that skirt the real issues. They ask leading questions to get a response they want. They don’t get a response when asking the first broad question so they don’t prepare good probing questions.

Dwight was running a project to implement a massive, new ERP system. The project was complex yet critical to the long term success of the company. Early in the project, there were signs of significant issues with the system integrator who was leading the technical work on the project. Dwight called a meeting with all the key project players. He intended to get a pulse on the status of the project so that he could decide if the project needed a major overhaul or not. He didn’t waste any time in the meeting and immediately went around the room and asked, “What do we need to do to get better results from the technical team?” The answers focused on very tactical solutions and didn’t address the bigger picture. He didn’t get a real pulse of the project because his question was too specific and narrow. It allowed the group to focus on innocuous tactical items rather than directly discussing the system integrator’s ability to deliver.

Tips To Get Good Feedback

Here are some quick tips to think about when deciding if you personally need feedback, a project needs a gut check, or you need a customer viewpoint.

1. Ask, Ask, Ask – Get over whatever is keeping you from asking for feedback. Understand that there is real value in getting input from others. It improves ideas and is essential to getting buy-in from key stakeholders. Also, remember it’s not an event, but a process. You have to prove that you are going to take and use feedback well before anyone will give you the good stuff. Make asking for feedback a standard part of doing business with you. Consistently ask for feedback with your team, customers, etc.

Michael assessed that his attempts at getting feedback were a waste of time. Thankfully, from the sidelines, Meredith was able to point out that he needed to change his approach to get the value out of the feedback. First, she suggested that he change his attitude about feedback and that he must really believe in the value. He agreed that he had started to see some of the negative effects of being a lone wolf. Second, she suggested that he make it a habit after every meeting and every conversation to ask “what do you think?” or “did that meet your expectations?” After many weeks of asking and waiting for the payoff, Michael started to get more and more feedback that helped him improve his decisions and get critical buy-in from others.

 

2. Listen and Learn – After you ask, be patient and wait through the uncomfortable silence for the feedback. Take the approach that every bit of feedback is a genuine learning experience. As you receive feedback, avoid the urge to explain yourself or refute points being made. Use good active listening skills to make sure you understand the key messages. If you must, give your side only after you are certain that you fully understand the feedback.

Luckily for Pam, her manager observed Pam’s enthusiastic yet ineffective approach to gathering feedback. Her boss was able to get Pam quiet long enough to make a couple points clear. As her boss attempted to explain that Pam is perceived as defensive, Pam quickly jumped in to stress that she really wanted the feedback. The moment was priceless for making the point and, luckily for Pam, the boss wasn’t deterred by her acting defensive while explaining she’s not defensive. Pam finally got it. She was now able to get some good feedback and begin to work on her ability to ask good questions and listen.

 

3. Prepare your questioning – Prepare good questions to increase the odds of getting the most useful information. It’s a balance between too general and too specific. Generally, a top-down approach works well. Ask the broad question first. How did that go? What did you think? Then go into more detail to either learn more about their initial comments or to prompt them to talk about specifics. The key is, through practice, getting a feel for the best way to get information and knowing when to ask what questions.

Dwight left his meeting frustrated that his team didn’t want to give him honest feedback on the sensitive and important issue regarding their system integrator. He sought the advice of his most trusted advisor, Stanley, whom had also attending the meeting. Dwight asked why the group did not offer their opinions on if the system integrator could pull off the project. Stanley bluntly responded that Dwight didn’t ask that question. Stanley explained that he was relieved the he could avoid giving his negative opinion about the integrator in the meeting. So, Dwight asked the tough question, “Do you think that they system integrator can deliver us a system that will meet our objectives?” Stanley responded bluntly, “No.” That’s when Dwight knew that he had to reconvene the meeting and ask different questions.

 

Why wait any longer to start asking for feedback? Start today! Most likely you are the only thing in the way. To ease you into it, here is a two step process to get started. First, make the conscious decision that you absolutely must get good feedback (Yes, this is just convincing yourself!). Second, make it a habit after every meeting to ask “did that meet your expectations?” You may get some funny looks and lame responses to start, but eventually you’ll be tapping into a new resource.

It’s really that simple to get started. Like many of us, you’ll need some practice at it. But is that a reason to not capitalize on feedback as a no-cost, high-impact resource? Better yet, you can easily get started with feedback (and flossing) TODAY!

LeadVantage is a management consulting firm in Chicago. We are experts at helping organizations and managers handle change. We offer experienced business people that can help you by running projects, improving processes, building organizations and developing managers. Learn more about us at www.leadvantage.com or call us today at 312.701.0101.