GIVING FEEDBACK: YEAH, NAH, YEAH?

Let’s face it. Giving feedback is something most people don’t find that easy.

Often, leaders want to communicate with their team members about an aspect of their work that needs improvement, but I hear several reasons for putting it off:

- ‘They are just new, and I’m sure they will pick it up soon’

- ‘I don’t want to upset them’

- ‘I feel nervous about delivering the feedback as I might upset them’

- ‘If I make some indirect (possibly joking) comments about the issue, they’ll just pick it up’

In my experience, avoiding giving feedback just doesn’t work. The same issue will probably keep repeating and eventually cause more friction between you, others on your team or clients and customers.

So the next time you need to give feedback, here is one thing to avoid and one thing to try.

Avoid

The sandwich technique or what I call Yeah, Nah, Yeah’ is so 1980’s so avoid at all costs. It softens the message so much that it loses its relevance or the person knows you are trying to tell them the ‘Nah’ piece and are just putting fluff comments around the edges.

Try

Giving corrective feedback using the SBI/AA technique

I’ve outlined here:

Situation - ‘Hey Mark, I want to chat with you about what I noticed in our team meeting earlier’

Behaviour – ‘I noticed that your comments on the project were mainly negative and you spoke over some of the newer members of our team when they offered ideas’

Impact – ‘The impact is that the newer members clam up and don’t contribute openly or are nervous to say what they think for fear of being shut down’

Pause - See how they respond to the above feedback and expect either acceptance or resistance to it.

Alternative Behaviour – ‘What I’d like to see you do is contribute positively to the discussions and also encourage comments from your colleagues’

Alternative Impact — ‘This will have a more helpful impact on assisting me in establishing team culture and modelling appropriate team behaviours.’

Of course, this is just an example I’ve created to show you the technique. The key point is to plan your feedback before you deliver it. There’s a helpful template called the SBI/AA Feedback to assist you in writing this.

Using the SBI/AA Feedback technique focuses on the Impact of their action or lack thereof on the work, the team and you as their leader.

It helps remove emotion from it as it doesn’t focus on the person's personality but the impact of their actions.

Plan it, try it out and see what happens.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised!

For more ideas about feedback and other leadership tools, try my new Online Leadership Training launching this week!

I’d like to acknowledge the original SBI/AA model came from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL).