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Feedback is critical for development
 

By Christine Cowan-Gascoigne
 

We all have blind spots about our job, about others and especially about ourselves.
    
This happens for two reasons: We tend not to seek feedback in general (we may even avoid it if we sense dissatisfaction), and people are uncomfortable giving feedback because they don't "want to hurt" others (at best) or fear retribution (at worst).
 
Women are especially vulnerable to blind spots because of our typically stronger drive to "be nice" and "kind" (e.g., "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"), and to expect others to treat us the same way.
 
Learning to seek and give constructive feedback, no matter how distressing it may be, is critical to our ability to grow and develop (and perhaps even survive) and to help others grow and develop to their full potential.
 
In working with supervisors and managers - both men and women - in for-profit and non-profit, manufacturing and service organizations, I have discovered that crises, both personal and organizational, are invariably triggered by blind spots.
 
Problems evident to others long before they become crises are not at all apparent to the individual or group causing them until the product bombs, the bank forecloses, the key employee quits, a department is downsized or the boss fires you.
 
The cost - both personally and organizationally - of these blind spots is huge and avoidable.
 
Because everyone has blind spots, every manager - in fact, every employee - ought to develop and implement a system to elicit feedback regularly from the people he or she works with, whether or not the organization has a formal performance-appraisal system.
 
And to be effective, feedback must be elicited from colleagues and employees with less power than you, not just your bosses.
 
Here are some tips for setting up a feedback process:
  • Find or develop a survey that covers critical issues, such as your credibility, your tact and diplomacy, your technical skills, your team orientation, your problem-solving ability and your delegating skills.
    Many good surveys are commercially available. Telometrics of Woodlands, Texas, for example, has an excellent one called "Survey of Management Practices." Check with a human resources department for a recommendation.
     
  • Select four or five people to complete the surveys to ensure that you have comprehensive and representative findings. At least one of them should be someone you are having difficulty with. Explain the purpose and process and give them a deadline for returning the survey.
     
  • Select one of the five or a neutral outsider to act as the survey collector and data collator so participant anonymity can be preserved. While this is important the first time you ask for feedback, it may not be necessary later as participants gain trust in you and the process.
     
  • Expect some disappointments and surprises. After all, you are attempting to unearth issues you may have been blind to in the past.
     
  • After you have analyzed the feedback, meet with the participants for two hours as a group to elicit their suggestions for improvement. This is a critical and often overlooked step. Without specifics, blind spots will endure.
    For example, getting an unfavorable rating in "Tries to give people power and opportunities to influence decisions about their work" needs to be supported with specific things the manager did that made the participants feel powerless and uninvolved. Only through the specifics can meaningful and positive change result.
     
  • Work to develop an action plan to address the three to five highest-priority issues identified by your participants and share that plan with them. Ask them to be your day-to-day coaches to ensure your success.
     
  • Repeat the process every nine to 12 months.
     
  • Offer to help others initiate this process.

Learn to seek and act on constructive feedback and become the person you always wanted to be - or thought you were. Your future depends on it.

Cowan-Gascoigne is founder and president of The Leadership Co., a Cleveland consulting firm.

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