Actionable Feedback: Unlocking the Power of Learning and Performance Improvement
Academy of Management Executive, 2005, Vol. 19, No. 2
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Actionable feedback: Unlocking the power of learning and performance improvement
Mark D. Cannon and Robert Witherspoon Executive Overview
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Critical Feedback It’s no secret that most people dislike giving critical feedback.1 To compound the problem, delivery of critical feedback frequently fails to lead to a desirable change in the recipient’s behavior.2 In addition, recipients of critical feedback sometimes retain hostile feelings towards the givers for years after the fact and may even lash out at them.3 Nonetheless, because assimilation of accurate feedback is crucial to employee learning and development,4 managers are charged with the responsibility of providing it. In an effort to assist managers with this challenging task, we will explore what makes feedback-giving so difficult and what can be done to make it less painful and more useful. More specifically, we will describe the cognitive and emotional dynamics— how we think and feel—that interfere with the quality of feedback giving and receiving. We will also explore how understanding these dynamics can help managers produce more actionable feedback. By “actionable feedback” we mean feedback that produces both
120
Delivering critical feedback can be brutal for everyone involved. Most managers hate giving critical feedback, and most employees detest receiving it. In addition, critical feedback often fails to produce the desired results. We describe how cognitive and emotional dynamics— how we think and feel while giving and receiving feedback— can complicate this process, making it more painful and less useful
........................................................................................................................................................................
Actionable feedback: Unlocking the power of learning and performance improvement
Mark D. Cannon and Robert Witherspoon Executive Overview
........................................................................................................................................................................
Critical Feedback It’s no secret that most people dislike giving critical feedback.1 To compound the problem, delivery of critical feedback frequently fails to lead to a desirable change in the recipient’s behavior.2 In addition, recipients of critical feedback sometimes retain hostile feelings towards the givers for years after the fact and may even lash out at them.3 Nonetheless, because assimilation of accurate feedback is crucial to employee learning and development,4 managers are charged with the responsibility of providing it. In an effort to assist managers with this challenging task, we will explore what makes feedback-giving so difficult and what can be done to make it less painful and more useful. More specifically, we will describe the cognitive and emotional dynamics— how we think and feel—that interfere with the quality of feedback giving and receiving. We will also explore how understanding these dynamics can help managers produce more actionable feedback. By “actionable feedback” we mean feedback that produces both
120
Delivering critical feedback can be brutal for everyone involved. Most managers hate giving critical feedback, and most employees detest receiving it. In addition, critical feedback often fails to produce the desired results. We describe how cognitive and emotional dynamics— how we think and feel while giving and receiving feedback— can complicate this process, making it more painful and less useful