Maintaining Alignment Through Feedback

A key component of maintaining a high-performance culture and a focus on the organization's destination points is to provide ongoing, effective feedback. In The One Minute Manager, feedback was described as conversations to either "praise or reprimand."Formal feedback consisted of an annual meeting to receive notice of a salary increase or perhaps a 1-5 rating in several categories. Most people filled in the blanks by noting the size of their salary increase relative to what they expected and through non-verbal cues.While most aspects of the working world have changed during the past 25 years, the process of providing feedback has seen little improvement despite the fact that today's employees crave it more than ever. One of the current challenges is to try to individualize feedback to the four generations present in the workforce: Traditionalists (born before 1945); Baby Boomers (1946-1964); Generation Xers (1962-1980); and Millennials (1981-2000).While Traditionalists are t
ypically looking for public recognition of individual and team accomplishments, Generation Xers may be more focused on how they can be constantly learning and contributing to the company's success. Baby Boomers like public recognition from their superiors as well as from their peers.For Millennials, feedback is "just a way of being" as they give and receive it constantly via social networking and they desire it the most frequently from their bosses. While feedback may be tailored to generational needs, some aspects of effective feedback remain constant.Feedback essentially presents information with the goal of either modifying behavior which is unacceptable, or maintaining behavior which is exceptional, in the future. Green defines it as "help[ing] an individual or group learn from any recent experience (positive or negative) for the purpose of improving performance and building capabilities."She reminds readers that feedback comes in many forms besides an annual review: it
can include surveys, emails, brief conversations, break room discussion, or even self-talk. What is perhaps most important to note is that if managers fail to consistently offer structured feedback, employees typically seek "data" about their performance elsewhere by focusing on things such as if they received a hello or not.Once an employee decides that unfriendly behavior is indicative of their poor performance, data that suggests otherwise is often ignored and poor performance can become self-fulfilling. Effective feedback relies on both trust in who is dispensing it and on its business relevance.If feedback is data-based and ties behavior back to the strategic framework (mission, guiding principles, destination points, etc.), then it is clear to employees that the feedback is intended to be helpful and improve their performance. This is why it is so crucial to define and model excellence up front. One of the most common mistakes of managers is to evaluate their employees
based on "secret criteria."If the standard has not been clearly defined and employees do not know how they are being measured, a manager cannot give consequences fairly. Secondly, if employees note that a manager is not holding himself to the same standard, they will not receive critique positively.Employees note when managers are distracted during meetings, frequently arrive late, or continually postpone performance reviews; managers need to ensure they do not send signals that imply a double standard.

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