Category Archives: feedback

Giving and receiving criticism and praise.

Why Managers Get Fired

Posted on February 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’ve had a funny month. One of my clients has demoted one of their managers, and fired another. A second customer is considering buying out a minor shareholder who’s also a manager. All of them for either not being able to do their jobs as it relates to managing other people or themselves. It all seems to relate back to feedback, influence, and communication.

I’ll give one example. One of my construction clients had an operator who screwed up and caused unnecessary damage. It was bad enough that the operator suspended. His manager didn’t know how, or didn’t feel confident in doing the suspension himself, and asked the general manager to do it for him.

At this point I’ve got a couple of questions, like how come we’re discussing the fairly straight-forward suspension of an operator at the executive level? Or how come somebody is  a manager (leader) and still not confident confronting poor performance? Or how somebody who couldn’t perform basic managerial tasks without guidance and oversight at every step is hired for a job that is essentially just that. Or how long has this being going on?

Ultimately they decided to let that manager go. After they started digging and asking questions they found other issues. They decided that if that general manager has to do his job for him, then why pay the guy?

Which means that the general manager is now (still) the bottleneck for operations. Which isn’t his role. He has to spend time finding the right gal or guy as a replacement, and run operations in the meantime, while juggling his “real” job of building relationships with existing customers and finding new ones in a new operation in a new city.

How well do you think he’s going to do at hiring a good operations manager with all that on his plate? Oh, yea, he’s also short an operator while the original problem child is on suspension.

So what? Well, if you’re in a “manager”, making your “general manager’s” job easier means handling things at the lowest level possible. If you’re not comfortable at giving specific, fact-based feedback and applying the appropriate consequences, then start now. Yes, you’re going to suck at it and be really uncomfortable with it at first, especially if you haven’t done it before, had a good example of how to do it, or had training. Too bad. All those excuses have a solution, but none of them should hold you back from starting now. Everything is practice until it isn’t. So start practicing.

If you’re the “general manager”, then stop hiring for just experience and knowledge. Look for the ability to develop, coach, and mentor team members. Look for the ability to create teams. For the experience admitting mistakes, fostering trust, taking responsibility, and being comfortable with conflict.

Your Homework This Week: Catch somebody doing something right every day for the next seven days. Give them specific, actionable feedback. If you don’t know what this means then do the research and learn how. *

*hint: I’ve written at least two dozen article on the topic of giving feedback for this blog.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in coaching, conflict, delegation, developing staff, feedback, mentoring, teamwork

Tagged , , ,

Improv Rules For Business and Life (Part II)

Posted on January 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Part 2 of Karl & Bernie’s conversation about how the rules for comedy improvisation can and should be applied to business and life. Have fun!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in behaviour, communications, emotional intelligence, engagement, execution, feedback, focus, listening, motivating, persauding, teamwork

Tagged , , , ,

Most Popular Practical Managers Post of 2012

Posted on December 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

Survival, focus, feedback seemed to come out on top this year. I was surprised by some of these, but not by others. Here’s an obiligatory year-end top five list of the most popular Practical Managers blog posts:

5. The Definition of Business Focus

“If we did not do this already, would we go into it now? If not, what do we do now?”

One of the shortest blog posts ever, and quoted from Drucker.

4. Before Leading Others, Lead Yourself

I am more and more convinced that the biggest  obstacle to leadership is the self-imposed lack of regular blocks of uninterrupted time to think. This article came out of what happened when one of my clients went to France for a week on a family vacation, without his Blackberry. Since then he’s doubled the size of his business.

3. How to Give Corrective Feedback

2. How to Give Positive Feedback

One of those simple things that outstanding managers do well – giving continuous, mostly positive feedback. Can you become an okay manager and still avoid giving feedback? Maybe. Can you become an outstanding manager? Absolutely not.

Here’s the four “F’s” of feedback, in an easy to remember mnemonic so that you have no excuses:  fast, friendly, frequent, focused. Make it factual and actionable. That is all. Now go practice.

1. Deep Survival: Business Lessons From the Wild

I’d like to say that this is the most popular article because of my deep insight and wildly lucid writing style. I’d like to say that, but I can’t. More likely it’s because the work “survival” is a popular search term. Which just goes to show that sometimes you have to get lucky to make the hard work pay off, but if you don’t do the work you can’t get lucky.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in feedback, focus

Tagged , ,

The Four F’s of Feedback

Posted on December 5, 2011 | 1 Comment

Fast, Friendly, Frequent, Focused

Giving feedback sucks. For whatever reason many managers aren’t good at it. I won’t list all the reasons I’ve heard , but I’m sure you can think back to some of your own, perhaps from bitter experience.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

It doesn’t have to be torturous, drown-out, or dramatic. My clients who give fast, friendly, frequent, and focused feedback to their staff  have found it doesn’t take very long to see huge changes in performance, both individually and at the team level.

Fast

10 seconds is all you need to give feedback. Longer that that you’re not getting to the point. Think about what you want to say, then say it. End of story. Don’t make a big deal about it. Giving feedback should be as natural as breathing for a leader. Treat it that way.

Friendly

Giving somebody feedback is an act of love. You’re trying to help them get better. Helping people do better is part of your job. It’s not the end of the world. If the person you’re giving feedback to treats it that way, it’s their choice, and that’s a different conversation.

Keep it friendly, keep it relaxed, keep it informal. Remember also that while positive feedback isn’t as powerful a kick in the pants as constructive feedback, it’s more likely to result in the behaviour you want. You just have to give it more often. Catch them doing something right.

Frequent

My wife was driving back from giving a presentation in small-town Saskatchewan once. It was late, it had been a long day, and she was tired. She fell asleep in one town and woke up in another 50 kilometers later when the smell of farmers burning their fields got her attention. Good thing the highways in Saskatchewan are so straight.

Usually when we’re driving we are continuously making small corrections using the steering wheel, instead of waiting just before we hit the ditch to yank on the wheel to get us back on course. Feedback is the same thing.

Start by giving feedback once a day. You’ll quickly see what difference it makes, and you’ll want to do it more often.

Focused

By focused I mean specific and actionable. Tell them what you want them to do, what behaviour you want them to change (or keep doing), or what physical, tangible action they need to take in order to improve for next time. Feedback is useless if the target of your feedback doesn’t know what to do with it.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in behaviour, change, coaching, communications, feedback, focus

Tagged ,

What Are You Communicating?

Posted on July 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

One of the more frequent issues facing organizations is around internal communication. Sometimes employees say they don’t know what’s going on despite great effort made at communicating, or the leader has a clear idea of where they want to go but nobody seems to be following.

Even worse is when the leadership thinks it’s doing a good job communicating (“Look, we have a newsletter!”), but the internal survey comes back with “lack of communication” written all over it. This is what I like to call failing the “Am I smoking crack?” check.

Good news: at least you’re checking. That puts you ahead of 90% of the companies out there.

What simple behaviors do leaders who communicate well engage in? Here’s a couple of things I’ve noticed.

  1. Listen  - Maybe your one-way communication to your organization isn’t the problem. Maybe it’s that you’re not listening to what they’re saying. People generally aren’t ready to listen until they feel they’ve been heard. Maybe they’re trying to tell you something important? What are you telling people when you listen to them.
  2. Have a Simple and Consistent Message- remember KISS? “Keep it Simple Stupid?” The “stupid” in this case is not the people you’re talking to. It’s you. If you think that a wordy, complicated, bland message  is going to engage people to action then you’re being stupid.If you’re going to ask people to listen to you at least do them the courtesy and have the courage to actually say something. Be bold, brave, and brief.What is your message?
  3. Link Purpose to Action- can you answer the “So What?” question? Does everybody in your organization know where they fit in? If they don’t know how what they do supports the company – what the company is trying to do and what their part is – then they tend to switch off.If you can’t draw a line between somebody’s role  in your company to the company’s larger vision, strategy, and goals, then why do they work for you again?
  4. See Every Interaction as an Opportunity – every interaction with all employees is an opportunity to communicate. Beginning at the hiring process, on-boarding, newsletters, celebrations, feedback, one-on-ones, coaching, how your company runs meetings, who you fire (or not), who you promote(or not), etc. All the simple things that outstanding managers do well.How does your company behave during a crisis? What does how often and how you communicate say about you and your company? Sometimes it’s a case of “your actions are so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying”.
  5. Forget E-Mail – notice how I didn’t mention e-mails (until now). If you think you’re communicating through e-mail you might want to have another think.  Talking a lot is also not communicating (see point 1. above).
How important do you think communication is in your current rôle? How much time do you think you spend communicating? How much time do you dedicate to “communicating” (and listening) in your daily schedule?

→ 1 Comment

Posted in behaviour, change, coaching, communications, conflict, delegation, engagement, execution, feedback, influencing, listening, mentoring, motivating, persauding

Tagged , ,

Great Leaders Do These Four Things

Posted on June 27, 2011 | 1 Comment

Eventually, with most of my clients, we get around to the topic of non-cash motivators. Everybody has to watch the cash-flow, for sure. Plus we all know that after a while it isn’t about the money anymore. Once you’ve started paying enough to make food, clothing, and shelter a non-issue it becomes more about those things higher up Maslow’s Hierarchy.

Plus, you want your employees to be happy, to bond, and to work as  team, right? So we should all go out to paintball, or a ropes course, or just do something fun together. Because cheaper than paying somebody a decent wage, and not a waste of time at all.

Bull.

Happy Employees Are Not Productive Employees

Happy employees do not make productive employees. Productive employees make happy employees. So here are my 4 quick suggestions for making productive, happy employees. Unless you’re running a metaphorical day-care for your extended family. Then feel free to ignore me.

Fire the Creeps and Bums

Firing a non-productive or anti-social (in the destructive sense) member of a team actually increases the team’s productivity by 30 to 40%. Do the math. That means that on a team size of 4, getting rid of the troll the productivity stays the same or gets better and your payroll drops by a quarter. That’s just the break-even point. On a larger team then you’re making money by getting rid of the bully / degenerate  because of the bump to productivity. If they’re at the managerial or executive level your ROI is even higher.

Why are you keeping them around again?

Celebrate Success

If you’re going to throw a party, BBQ, go-cart race, or day at the pistol range (yes, a real-life example) to do some team-building then make it about a specific business accomplishment. Tie the celebration to specific goals, targets, and tangible, actionable company priorities. Just like good one-on-one, feedback is specific and actionable. So to should be the communication at a company party.

“Hey, we opened a new office in that other city, woohoo! Next quarter we’re going to cut costs by 10% without laying anybody off. If we can do that we’ll have another party! Woohoo!” It’s good communication, another thing that most bosses don’t do well enough.

Make It Easy To Do The Job

This is an example of the KISS principle in action: Keep It Simple, Stupid. By the way, the “Stupid” in KISS does not represent the employee. It’s a reminder to us bosses to keep things straight-forward, clear, and do-able. Otherwise we’re being simple-minded.

There is nothing worse than trying to do a good job and not being able to  because there are too many rules, contradictory directions and guidance, processes and procedures, moving parts, and forms that nobody could ever do it right no matter how hard they try – and then getting in trouble for it.

Clear, simple direction give rise to intelligent, complex behaviour. Complex direction gives rise to stupid, simple behaviour.

Give Specific Feedback

This is the guidance that I started writing this week`s post about. The most effective non-monetary impact you can have on any of your employees is specific, actionable feedback that they can use to get better at their jobs.

This means that you might actually have to pull your head out of your  email and pay attention to your employees. Observe their behaviour. Take notes. Ask questions about their aspirations and career goals. Give guidance. Be a leader.

Most times when somebody leaves it’s not really about the money, even if that’s what they tell you in the exit interview. Employees mostly leave because their immediate supervisor is a poo-poo head. They’ll stay for less money if they know that somebody at work cares about them, and they can do their best every day. They’ll mostly get from their direct supervisor, or not. But it’s too late by the time they’re walking out the door.

Do you have a problem with employee turnover? Then see rule #1 “Fire the Creeps and Bums”. Take a close look at those at the top of the company first. Look at your middle managers second.  There`s an old Turkish saying:

“The fish stinks from the head down”

→ 1 Comment

Posted in coaching, developing staff, engagement, execution, feedback, listening, mentoring, motivating, teamwork

Tagged , , , ,

How to Get the Credit You Deserve

Posted on June 20, 2011 | 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago I got an  e-mail from a former co-worker asking what shy employees could do to get the credit they deserve for the work they do. The past couple of weeks I’ve talked about

Which is all great, but shy people are shy. Which means marching into your bosses office with a year’s worth of accomplishments isn’t really in the cards. Not that I would suggest that you do that anyway.

Manage the Relationship

Relationships are funny things. They don’t just happen. At least, not usually. Some people seem to be able to walk into a crowded room of strangers and come out with a dozen new friends. They’re lots of fun to be around, for sure, but at least half of the world is not like that.

So what does this half of the world do? For us, relationships are a matter of trust built over time. The more time we spend with somebody, the more we trust them, the stronger the relationship.

Ideally you shouldn’t have to manage your relationship with your boss  by yourself. You and she would be managing your relationship together. By which I mean you would be getting half-an-hour of face-time with them, one-on-one, every week. If that’s already happening for you, that’s fantastic. Stop reading here.

If not, and the thought of asking your boss for a half-hour commitment once a week scare the bejesus out of you, then start smaller. Take that summary you’re getting from your weekly plan/do/review exercise, and e-mail it to her.

Write a Weekly E-mail

It doesn’t have to, and really shouldn’t be, a long detailed e-mail. Just enough detail that you can recall what you were talking about a year from now. Hit the highlights:

  • what did you get done last week, and
  • what are you going to focus on this week.

End of story. If you have more than a three or four sentence paragraph consider editing it down.

First and most important, it ensures you are working on the right thing. No point in putting in all that effort if your boss needs you to be working on something else. And didn’t realize you weren’t working on it. Imagine that going on for weeks or even months and then them finding out you weren’t working on what they thought you were . . . Oh, you don’t have to imagine it? Oh dear.

Secondly, it keeps you top of mind with your boss and all the things you’ve accomplished in the last year. Especially when it comes time for that all important performance review and bonus and raise (or even, as I was discussing with a family friend this weekend, departmental budget discussions)

Third, it made it easier for your boss to write your performance review. All they need do is pull up all e-mails from you titled “Weekly Status Update” and start remember all the wonderful things you accomplished. With enough specifics and details to justify the high rating you now deserve.

When You Become the Boss

Ideally this conversation would be taking place face-to-face, one-on-one with just you and the boss every week. In half-an-hour or less  you’d cover a lot of ground. But most bosses are very hard to convince that giving up a half-hour slot for every direct report they have every week to do a status update and maybe even some coaching and mentoring. What they don’t realize is that this is a viable alternative to spending their time  running around with their hair on fire.

The hair-on-fire-dealing-with-the-latest-emergency-and-oh-my-god-I-have-500-e-mails-in-my-in-box happens in part because they don`t manage their employees. They think they do, but they don’t deal with setting priorities, reviewing work, assigning work, coaching, mentoring, and giving feedback in a one-on-one situation with each of their direct-reports every week, they`re not. If they did that, their hair wouldn’t be on fire in the first place.

So we’ll help them as best we can by keeping communications open.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in communications, continuous improvement, effeciency, effectiveness, engagement, feedback, influencing, mentoring, performance appraisal, performance review, productivity, relationships, self development, self improvement

Tagged , , ,

Manage Your Performance Review

Posted on June 13, 2011 | 1 Comment

If you want to communicate well with your boss you have to plan for it. It’s not enough to do your job well, unfortunately. Especially if you’re the “shy” type and your boss isn’t. What does help is to make regular communication with your boss part of your routine – and I know us introverted types have a routine. It’s often part of our base behaviour.

I once had a friend at GD who would sit down once a year for an afternoon in a comfy chair. Glass of fine scotch in hand, pen & paper in the other he would spend a couple of hours by himself reviewing his accomplishments for the last year. He figured out what he wanted to do in the next year. He would consider his career, his volunteer and recreational activities, relationships, and how happy he was with his life.

The Power of Review

He gave himself his own performance review, planned what to do next, and then went and did it. I’m not sure where he is now, but I’m sure he’s still on the fast track, or doing what he loves, or both.

The Plan – Do – Review cycle is one of those simple ideas with a lot of applications. Fighter pilots call it OODA (Observe – Orient – Decide – Act). David Allen of GTD fame models it as Capture – Organize – Review – Do.

Here’s the simple idea:  Use “Plan – Do – Review” to show your boss you know what you’re doing. Make her job of reviewing your performance easier. Admit it, some bosses don’t prepare for performance appraisals very well anyway.

Sometimes the only way it will happen is if we can make it easier for them. Is this “right”? Probably not, but do you want to leave your hands in the hope that somebody else is going to do the right thing? Your promotions, raises, and career depend on your boss knowing (and remembering, and documenting) what you’ve done for the last year. Don’t depend on them to follow your best self-interest. It might not happen unless you make it happen.

Plan – Do – Review In Action

You can apply the Plan – Do – Review trope to your hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. work. Try it, and with an honest effort you’ll find yourself looking for new contexts and situations you’ll want to apply it to.

If you’ve spent the last year creating a “brag” folder, listing your accomplishments, reviewing your own performance, and mitigating your own weaknesses, wouldn’t that make you look good on your appraisal anyway?

Get Better and Get Credit

I’ve borrowed much of this concept from “Rock Your Review” by Tanya Stevenson, a great book and a quick read from somebody’s who’s done what she describes, and done it very well. Here’s my take:

  • At the beginning of every work week, review your calendar, to-do list, and work assignments. Decide what the most important things you need to get done that week are, and plan how you’re going to get them done.
  • Do It

Use Review To Capture Too

  • At the end of the week, take some time to assess yourself against your plan. Did you do what you set out to do? What did you get done? What are you going to do about what was left un-done? What obstacles did you run into that you need help with? What suggestions would you like to make, and what did you learn? What do you plan to get done next week?
  • Write your accomplishments into a short e-mail to yourself, or capture it in some other way that’s appropriate to your work. At the end of the year you should have a nice fat folder brimming with 52 weeks of your accomplishments.

The question then becomes: what to do with this trove of productivity? You’ve captured what you want to communicate, how does the real communication happen?

Next Week

Telling your boss how great you are without feeling like an ass.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in communications, continuous improvement, decision making, effectiveness, executing, execution, feedback, GTD, influencing, meetings, performance appraisal, performance review, productivity, self development, self improvement, self-awareness, setting goals, strategy, your career

Tagged , , ,

Of Feedback, Sambuca, and the Future

Posted on March 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

I look forward to Friday nights. Usually I’ll be at the archery range followed by a beer at the local watering hole with my lovely wife and fellow archers. I was especially looking forward to this week since I won an archery tournament last weekend up in Edmonton. Woohoo! I was ready to celebrate.

Alas, I’ve come down with a cold. I’m sitting at home watching an Auction Hunters marathon instead, and trying to kill my infection with Sambuca. It seems to help the sinuses. Maybe not, but by the time I finish writing this I won’t care.

Nothing bad (or good) lasts forever. I know I’ll whine and snivel my way through the weekend, and be back on my feet and ready to rock by Monday morning. Attending the team meeting and doing my client preparation for the week. The ability to look to the future is a good thing. Without it we sometimes tend to wallow in our present miseries, and maybe even get stuck there.

Without knowing or imagining what’s going to happen next we might feel trapped and helpless, or even overwhelmed. Many inspiring things in life are future oriented, and they pull us along into the desired next state.

The Value of Concrete, Visual Language

A concrete and visual future can be  inspiring, but warm and fuzzy future is useless. The brain is a visual (and emotional) machine. That’s why when CEO’s want a collectively motivating vision, mission, or purpose, it’s based on concrete visual language. On of my favourite examples is this quote often mis-attributed to General George S. Patton

“I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.”

That’s very concrete language, no?

Recruiters also use visualization. First, if they can see the job they are recruiting for, they have a better chance of filling it with the right person.  Secondly, if they see you performing the job, based on your description of the work you’ve done in the past, then you’ve got a better chance of landing it.

What’s This To Do With Feedback?

Practise doesn’t make perfect, but perfect practise does. Feedback needs to be future oriented. It also needs to be specific and concrete. Pointing out to one of our direct reports that they screwed up / performed brilliantly is not enough.

We have to be specific enough that they know what they’re being criticized / praised. It is necessary but not sufficient to point out the error. They must also rehearse how they are to change their behaviour in the future. Even if this rehearsal is only mental. Otherwise, what you’ll get is the same behaviour next time.

We also have to cast their thinking into the future.  They need to take the responsibility for fixing the problem, changing their behaviour, or doing things differently. This is the purpose of feedback. They need to be able to see themselves doing it differently next time.

Without this last step in the feedback process what will usually happen is that they’ll just do the same thing again. Not out of habit, not out of laziness, not out of stubbornness or thoughtlessness. They just won’t think about it because they haven’t “seen” it done differently.

The Last Question

Assuming we’re giving corrective feedback, the last question in any feedback process needs to be  a variation of:

“What are you going to do differently next time?”*

Questions engage the mind of the person being asked. It allows them to take responsibility for the outcome. Asking the future-oriented question gives them the problem to solve. Instead of waiting for you to hand them the solution.

Which is the point of giving feedback. They change their behaviour. They take responsibility. If you have to do everything for them then what’s the point of having employees? Give them something to do about it, or even mentally rehearse for the future, so they don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over.

So, what are you going to do next?

Other resources:

Manager Tools Podcast


Coaching for Performance: GROWing Human Potential and Purpose – The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership

*If you’re dealing with positive feedback, the question “What are you going to do differently”. A “Keep it up.”, or “Keep doing that.” works better instead.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in behaviour, coaching, communications, developing staff, effectiveness, emotional intelligence, engagement, feedback, focus, influencing, leadership, motivating, productivity

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Ask Before Giving – Making Feedback Even More Effective

Posted on February 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

The word “feedback” very often gets defences up and vibrating. Here are some approaches you might want to try  for getting past those defences.

1. Ask first

Why ask? Because then the target of your feedback has some control. Even if they don’t feel they can say no, saying yes to feedback helps lower the defences.

A bit manipulative? Maybe, or you could think of it helping them feel comfortable with what they’re about to hear.

You’re not the kind of boss who asks permission to do your job? Maybe, or you could think of it as being more effective. Defensive people aren’t listening and communication is about the listener does. Don’t worry, the big flashing red “boss” sign over your head never goes away no matter how nice you are.

2. Pleasantly Surprise Them

If you’re already giving positive feedback, good for you. If you’re not, what are you waiting for? There will come a day when you’ll need to give somebody corrective feedback. After all the positive feedback you’re giving they’ll be ready for it and they’ll hear it. In the meantime, keep feeding the monkeys.

3. Don’t push . . .

You’ve asked if you can give your employee feedback, and she says no. Now is not the time to push. You’ve given them a shot over the bow already, and they probably know what it is they’ve screwed up. They need time to collect themselves, or to fix the problem, or something else is on their mind which is why they’re having an off day. In any case, they’re not in a receptive mood. They’re not going to hear you anyway.

Either they’ll change their behaviour without having the conversation (you win, and they get to keep their dignity so you win), or they’ll come back later when they’ve collected themselves and are ready to listen (you win), or they won’t. If they don’t then . . .

4. . . . Until There’s a Pattern

. . . ask to give them feedback again. Do this two or three times until it becomes obvious they are closed to improving or working better with others. In that case it’s time for systemic feedback. Feedback about them not accepting what you, the boss, has to say about their performance. This is a bigger issue, and now they don’t get a choice.

Your Action

Ask to give positive feedback to somebody working for you in your organization every day this week.

Outstanding bosses give feedback continuously, many times a day. If you’re not used to this, and especially if your staff is not used receiving feedback from you, once a day is a good start. Walk before you run.

Further Reading:

Everybody Wants Feedback
How to Give Positive Feedback
How to Give Corrective Feedback
When Your Feedback Gets Pushback

→ Leave a comment

Posted in behaviour, change, coaching, communications, continuous improvement, developing staff, effectiveness, engagement, feedback, influencing, leadership, listening, mentoring, productivity, relationships

Tagged , , , ,