With feedback, you need a strong takeoff for a solid landing. Sharing good feedback takes skill and savvy, but it also requires a plan of action — an intentional effort to understand what others need and how you intend to meet and manage those expectations. If you want feedback to land smoothly, a good place to start is at the beginning, before you engage in conversation. Through my work helping leaders design and deliver feedback without fear, I’ve seen the positive effect of having a feedback “entry point,” a well-designed plan for sharing your message…. Read More

Receive feedback with more grace, gratitude and guts. We don’t choose the feedback we get, but we always control where it goes. Easier said than done, right? After years of helping organizations around the world receive and achieve feedback without fear, I’ve settled on a few principles and practices that can help. Some are directed at others. Others are pointed at ourselves. Questions to ask yourself: Before responding to negative feedback, impose a cool-down period and ask yourself these questions: These questions can help you separate facts from feelings, distinguish fixed conditions from… Read More

Changing the frame can change the effect. Getting negative feedback, especially from those we respect and trust, can quickly become an emotional train wreck that leaves us feeling hurt, helpless, and even a little bit hopeless. And when critical feedback is repeated over time, researchers have found that it can diminish our productivity, motivation and even our prospects for employment. The good news? We can flip the frame on negative feedback by changing the story. While we can’t control what happens to us, we can always change what happens next. Whether negative feedback causes us to become… Read More

How do you make difficult feedback even harder? By not showing up prepared. Communicating effectively takes skill and savvy, but it also requires a plan of action — an intentional effort to understand what others need and how you intend to meet and manage those expectations. If you need to share difficult feedback and want your feedback message to land smoothly, you need a plan for success. Through my work helping leaders design and deliver feedback without fear, I’ve seen the positive effect of having a feedback “entry point,” a well-designed plan… Read More

To give better ratings, check your blind spots. It’s not easy to truly evaluate someone’s performance, especially in this age of hyperconnected and decentralized work. When work is happening under many roofs, not one, how can we accurately assign ratings? Who gets credit for the product or prototype that emerges from cross-functional collaboration? And with so many companies modifying their performance management practices (and even dropping them altogether), assigning ratings to work has become a head-scratching experience. But what if the biggest barrier to giving a meaningful measure of work…is the person giving… Read More

Taking a partnership approach helps both sides reach their destination. If it seems like feedback is one-sided, that’s probably because it is. Traditional feedback operates with a sense of hierarchy. The giver holds the power and the position. He or she spends most of the time talking and tuning. The process feels more like “tell and sell” than “listen and learn.” At its core, this type of feedback sparks fear, not joy. In today’s post-pandemic workplace, this approach is no longer viable. Employees work with less visibility and greater flexibility than before…. Read More