BZ11 Business Communication Assignment Sample
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‘Giving Feedback’ as an Interpersonal Skill
Introduction
Having good interpersonal skill is a key competency required in organizations or higher studies alike. The skill to give and receive feedback is a vital aspect of organizational culture and team work. Feedback can be given under many occasions – giving feedback to one’s subordinate on his/her performance, giving feedback to one’s colleagues on their idea or teamwork or sometimes one needs to give feedback to one’s supervisor as well. Giving a good feedback can greatly improve the receivers performance and one can have a clear understanding of one’s standing (Vich & Kim, 2016). There are various approaches to giving feedback which will be analysed in this report and how we can increase organizational effectiveness with good feedback. One should also try to create an organizational culture where giving and taking feedback is encouraged and accepted by all. Feedback is very important for good team performance as well.
Giving Feedback
Providing feedback to an employee with regards to their progress in achieving their goals is an important aspect of the coaching process (Aguinis, 2009). Feedback is based on past information with the idea of helping improve one’s future performance. Feedback has both a future and a past aspect attached to it. It has both a negative and a positive side to it to establish how well one is meeting their predefined standards and expectations. Feedbacks have many benefits associated to itself like:-
- Confidence builder- Acknowledging good performance helps to build confidence and lets gives the employee belief that the manager cares for him
- Competency development- Clear communication about one’s performance helps one understand what has been done correctly and where one needs to improve
- Increases involvement- When provided feedback and also while setting goals, the employee plays a part in it and it helps the employee understand where he fits in the bigger picture in context of the organisation
- In certain cases however just by providing feedback did not mean that performance has improved because the right information was withheld or not given. It can also be because the information was not provided in the right manner. It can also be harmful if it is aimed at the employee as a whole rather than certain specific behaviour at work. But the advantages of a feedback system finally do outweigh the disadvantages, if any (Aguinis , 2009). If feedback is not provided then organisation would be depriving their employees a chance of improving themselves as they would not be aware of what they have done positively and the areas in which they need improvement and also secondly organisations would not be able to grow until their employees grow and would be stuck at the old performance of the employees as they would have not been given any chance to improve themselves.
Certain steps can however be taken to enhance the overall feedback mechanism by making it more effective as stated by Aguinis et al., (2012) which are as follows:-
Timeliness- Timing of the feedback event is very important as it should be provided as close to the event as possible to avoid recency bias. If given immediately post to the event it has the most impact.
Frequency- Feedback should be given very frequently as it helps the employee to shape his direction in the right direction. If given on a daily basis, it is the best. Performance improvement is an ongoing activity and feedback plays an important part of performance management. Thus feedback mechanism should also be an ongoing process (Brinko, 1993).
Specificity – Feedback is not based on the employee in total but on the basis of certain behaviours, results and situations in which certain behaviours were observed. It is about those specific incidents or situations and the employee’s reaction in those particular situations and incidents in terms of behaviour and results.
Verifiability – Feedback should contain details and information which is precise, accurate and verifiable. It should not have basis on rumours or inferences. Using feedback which is accurate and specific helps the employee have a clear vision of what needs to be improved upon thus resulting in better and improved performance.
Consistency- Feedbacks should maintain consistency. It implies that information about the critical aspects should not vary between extreme praise and criticism and should maintain a relatively lesser deviation. It should thus adhere to consistency.
Privacy- The feedback should be given at a place and time which uphold the privacy of the conversation and that no third party is privy to the details of the feedback be it a praise or a criticism. Also the personality of the employee needs to be considered as some may not like being rewarded in public.
Consequences- Feedback should provide contextual and relevant information so that the employee can understand the significance of the behaviours in response to a particular situation and the impact it creates. For instance if an employee got irritated at the behaviour of an angry customer and did not respond to their queries in a structured manner, it should be explained to the employee, impact of such a step on the organisation (Aguinis et al., 2012).
First Description, Second Evaluation- Feedbacks should first focus on describing the behaviours and results and then on evaluation of the behaviours and judgements. As procedure it is better to report on what has been observed, to gain mutual, rather than start evaluating on what was observed. If mutual agreement is not sort after, the employee may start becoming defensive and may lose out on the intricacies of the conversation and thus the effect of having a feedback mechanism would be lost.
Performance continuum- Feedback should adhere to performance as a continuum process where good performance should move from less to more while poor performance should move from more to less. It should also include information on how to add behaviours which are more favourably desired by the organisation and reduce behaviours which have a negative impact on performance (Church et al., 2001). As performance management is an ongoing process, similarly feedback as part of managing one’s performance should be an ongoing process to help one include the behaviours which leads to desired performances and eliminate the undesired behaviours.
3 Strategies For Providing Feedback
Most of us find it a bit uncomfortable to give a critical feedback. At time people don’t give a critical feedback just to avoid conflict as we are afraid of how the individual receiving it might take it. All of this implies that we are working in a larger social context where giving critical feedback is still not desirable (Ashford et al., 2016). But for an organisation to work at its full potential, critical feedback is very important as it helps individuals to work on their weaknesses. From organisation to organisation what may vary is the framework used to deliver the feedback. Following are three frameworks which promote the process of giving feedback.
Radical Candor Model
Radical candour means to imply what one thinks (Machek, 2016). it is not about the feeling of goodness but about helping an individual to grow and facilitate development through the process of direct, empathetic and honest feedback. It is not personal in nature and does not look the individual in total, rather focuses on the behaviours and opportunities displayed by people rather than having a judgemental approach at people. Radical candour occurs with personal care and direct challenges. The feedback matrix is a balance of personal care or giving a kind empathetic delivery and a direct challenging by providing accurate and specific information. Any organisation not using this model might face with the following challenges:-
- When there is only challenge without any personal care , it might lead to obnoxious aggression
- When there is only care but no challenge it results in Ruinous empathy
- When there is no care and no challenge it leads to manipulative insecurity.
‘Guidance’ More Than Feedback
This theory finds it postulates on the notion that to instigate movement in a new direction, one needs to provide crystal clear direction. Feedback is both a backward and forward movement. It is reflection of the past, as an analysis of the behaviours displayed by one in a particular situation and the effect of that particular response or event on the organisation (Brinko, 1993). Thus it is analysis of the past to help the employee to display desired behaviours in the fall of a similar situation in the future though guidance by the support of a mentor or coach. It addresses what went well and what did not go well and what particular behaviours to replicate and what particular behaviours not to replicate. Guidance however is about looking forward and helping the individual in shaping and modifying a few behaviours to form new behaviours. It should involve the specific behaviour the manager would like to see in the subordinate (Church et al., 2001). It can be of the form of suggestions that a manager offers in a particular situation or asking open ended questions which encourages the individual to think on their feet and look to have a sense of ownership over their development in the present situation and in the future and the increase of the fact that the subordinate will follow through the desired and acquired behaviours in the future. This approach is useful as it showcases an individual the need to change one’s behaviour by offering the guidance and the support to do the same. It helps an individual to grow and develop personally and professionally.
Continue/Consider
General Electric was one of the foremost companies to eliminate the infamous annual performance reviews and instead incorporated a system of continuous and real time feedback given as recent to the event as possible. It also included a new framework on feedback to better focus on behavioural changes rather than just limiting oneself to the strength and weaknesses as done previously (Docheff, 1990). This new method looks at feedback as a continuous process to keep repeating a certain process. A good behaviour should move from a space of less to more while a behaviour which affects performance negatively should move from a space of more to less. It speaks of repetition of a certain behaviour and consideration towards the change of a few things. Both these approaches have come from a space of coaching. As seen in the prior guidance and feedback framework, this clarification helps the employees to solely prioritize and focus on looking forward, changes which are backed by actions and showcases feedback in a positive frame of light (Dohrenwend, 2002).
Other Useful Strategies For Feedback
Feedback Sandwich – When a negative feedback is sandwiched between two positive reinforcements to lessen the impact of the negative feedback. The middle feedback is on the area needing improvement and the two outer feedbacks are on areas of excellence (McKimm, 2009).
E(vidence), E(ffect) and C(hange) or EEC – In this evidence of work deviation is presented in the form of data, reports etc and its effect on the work schedule or the organization’s productivity is shown. And finally the desired change expected is communicated to the employee (Crochan 2013).
Group Feedback – The feedback is given to the team as a whole and the one-on-one setting is avoided. This can greatly improve team performance(Zhou, 2003).
Conclusion
One needs to build a culture of receiving and giving feedback in a team to facilitate growth. When all share an understanding of how this process is done, it helps everybody share and provide feedback. Every organisation should choose the framework that best is suited for their organisation and helps the team to grow while keeping a few things above in mind(Vich & Kim, 2016). One should also leverage upon the chosen model to [provide structure and build confidence while providing organisation feedback. Post which role modelling of the behaviour is important and role modelling how to provide feedback by using the approach selected by the organisation as the employees get familiar with it. Feedback is important and critical in developing oneself and others and like other skills it takes time and effort and practice to deliver and receive a good feedback(Hounsell et al., 2008).
References
- Aguinis, H. (2009). Performance management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
- Aguinis, H., Gottfredson, R. K., & Joo, H. (2012). Delivering effective performance feedback: The strengths-based approach. Business Horizons, 55(2), 105-111.
- Ashford, S. J., De Stobbeleir, K., & Nujella, M. (2016). To seek or not to seek: Is that the only question? Recent developments in feedback-seeking literature. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 213-239.
- Brinko, K. T. (1993). The practice of giving feedback to improve teaching: What is effective?. The Journal of Higher Education, 64(5), 574-593.
- Church, A. H., Waclawski, J., & Burke, W. W. (2001). Multisource feedback for organization development and change. The handbook of multisource feedback: The comprehensive resource for designing and implementing MSF processes, 301-317.
- Crochan, S. (2013). 3 Different Methods of Giving Feedback to Your Project Team. [online] Brighthub Project Management. Available at: https://www.brighthubpm.com/monitoring-projects/125744-three-methods-to-avoid-feedback-failure-in-project-management/ [Accessed 9 May 2018].
- Docheff, D. M. (1990). The feedback sandwich. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 61(9), 17-18.
- Dohrenwend, A. (2002). Serving up the feedback sandwich. Family practice management, 9(10), 43.
- Hounsell, D., McCune, V., Hounsell, J., & Litjens, J. (2008). The quality of guidance and feedback to students. Higher Education Research & Development, 27(1), 55-67.
- Machek, O.(2016). Theoretical overview of “radical candor”: a proactive and compassionate engagement in an unpleasant and direct feedback process. The paper discusses potential benefits.
- McKimm, J. (2009). Giving effective feedback. British Journal of Hospital Medicine (2005), 70(3), 158-161.
- Vich, M., & Kim, M. Y. (2016). Construction and Application of Radical Candor: Efficiency of Criticism at Work. Central European Business Review, 5(4), 11-22.
- Zhou, J. (2003). When the presence of creative coworkers is related to creativity: role of supervisor close monitoring, developmental feedback, and creative personality. Journal of applied psychology, 88(3), 413.
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