8/18/2013–Giving feedback gets easier the more you do it (duh, practice).
Two things make it effective and very easy to learn quickly: data and behaviors. I wrote before about data in relation to feedback but didn’t address the fact that many people don’t “get” numbers. This reduces data-driven feedback’s effectiveness. For these people, they still should be held accountable for hitting their priority #s. And, when giving feedback stress the underlying behaviors they and other effective team members do. Just delivering feedback more frequently makes you better. Doing it with data makes it easier because there’s no (usually) arguing and you know you’re basing it on solid reasoning. I recently gave negative feedback (FB-) to a struggling direct. She is a consistent under-performer, complicated by her poor acceptance of FB-. Managers in the past haven’t been able to elicit effective behavior because they’re FB- was based on attitude, and other subjective conclusions about her behavior (saying she’s “slow”). She would disagree, cry, and not know what specifically to do differently. Our talk was different. I referenced specific days she was late, combined with her consistently poor per-person average sales (PPA) and beer/wine/liquor average (BWL). Also, I explained that we have suggested behaviors to improve and she hasn’t done them (chosen not to). I was gentle in informing her that we’d let her go if she did not choose to behave differently. She didn’t argue. She did voice concerns, so it’s not like she just let me speak. The best part was the very next day she posted a top 5 PPA and had a table approach me to compliment her. It’s one day, but a major good sign.
QOTW: “I can’t think of a single FB+ my manager ever gave me.” – server
?FNW: Ecosure Tuesday… what score? 81-pass
10/14/2017 review: all still true–having data allows me as manager to provide effective feedback, either by mentioning the data itself or by translating it into behaviors and outcomes tailored to the communication style of my employee.