Do try this at work #7: Feedback Profiles
Feedback profiles for teams
First things first, here’s a super simple and hopefully helpful Feedback Profiles for Teams template that I created for a client and want to share with you 🤗 The purpose of the template is to very quickly document how each member of your team prefers to receive feedback. Why? Because:
We are all better off if we understand the impact we have on the people around us.
Read on for my favourite feedback method (‘brain-friendly feedback’) and why it’s a great idea to allocate 15 minutes of your next team meeting to completing your feedback profiles together. If you do this (recommended!) then your team will have created a resource that documents the following preferences for each team member:
When you have something appreciative for me, I’d prefer that you…
When you have something constructive for me, I’d like it if you could…
Why feedback?
We are all better off if we understand the impact we have on the people around us, and feedback is the best way to gain this understanding. It’s a shortcut to improvement and better collaboration; a source of growth for each of us. Done well it will help you, your colleagues, your team and potentially your whole organisation. In fact, how we receive feedback is the factor that most affects whether an organisation is learning or not.
Feedback is any information you receive that helps you become aware of the impact of your actions (The Leader Lab, Luna & Renninger).
Types of feedback
It’s handy to think about the different types of feedback; we have:
Appreciative - feedback that recognises someone for doing great work; you are doing a great job, keep going!
Coaching - feedback that helps us to learn, expand our knowledge, unlock skills and capabilities, and reach our potential; how do you feel you can make progress toward your goal of upgrading your meeting facilitation skills?
Evaluative - feedback that lets us know where we stand; against this set of expectations/measurements, here’s how you’re doing in comparison.
Without 2 and 3, we don’t know how to meet expectations, do an even better job, or become even better collaborators.
Remember, you can ask for the type of feedback that you’re craving - don’t wait to be offered. Routinely seeking it out is one of the most helpful things you can do to grow a culture of feedback in your team.
Sounds great, so what’s the problem?
Well, it turns out that giving and receiving feedback can be really, really hard. Saying difficult things well is a challenge, and hearing about the ways in which people feel we can improve can be tough. Because it’s so difficult, many of us (quite understandably) avoid it. Meaning we’ve not practised a whole lot, so we’re a bit crap at it… It’s hard to be good at something we don’t practice, right? So how can we practice?
Brain-friendly feedback
There are hundreds of models and techniques out there and quite frankly it’s a bit overwhelming. So I’d like to draw your attention to my favourite, ‘brain-friendly feedback’ (shared by cognitive psychologist LeeAnn Renninger, PhD).
Humans have been coming up with ways to feedback for centuries, but somehow we're still pretty terrible at it.
Brain-friendly feedback involves four simple steps that help to guide our feedback conversations, and I’ve added an extra step to make sure we have good intentions:
1. Check your intention
Is your feedback motivated by an intention to help?
Is it for their benefit? If not, discard it. Don’t kick them in the shin, it hurts!
Or, make it helpful by adjusting your motivation.
2. Ask for their permission
Give your colleagues' brains a heads up that feedback is coming. You can ask:
Do you have some time to talk about how that conversation/meeting/project went?
I have some ideas for how we can improve things, can I share them with you? Would you be up for hearing my thoughts on….? Can I offer you my feedback on… ? Is now a good time to reflect on…?
If you only ask ‘can I give you some feedback’ this is too vague and will likely trigger fear. Being clear about the topic helps the feedback recipient to show up to the conversation without being defensive and more ready to learn.
3. Be specific
What did you see or hear? Describe the behaviour you feel had a helpful or harmful impact on you.
This must be factual, using only data and never opinion.
E.g. You said you’d send me the document yesterday and I still don’t have it - something that your colleague cannot disagree with.
I noticed that… is a great way to begin this step.
4. Explain the impact
Without an impact statement, your feedback has little meaning and is unlikely to encourage/discourage the behaviour that you found helpful/harmful. So be sure to explain how the data impacted you. For example:
Because I didn’t get the document I couldn’t finish my report and the client gave me a hard time.
Or, by getting the document to me early I was able to finish and send the client report ahead of schedule and the client is really happy with us!
I mention it because… is a handy opening line for this step.
Whether it’s constructive or appreciative, be sure the link between the feedback and impact is clear and logical. This will help your feedback to land.
5. Check how it landed
A question after the impact statement ensures that it’s a two-way conversation and shows that you care about the other person’s perspective.
Ask them: How do you see it? What are your thoughts?
Then listen to their response and have a conversation until the penny drops. Be patient with this step, as it can be hard to see other points of view. Your question/checking how it landed may lead to a coaching conversation, which would be a great outcome.
The most nutritious feedback is small, bite-sized snacks, delivered frequently (The Leader Lab, Luna & Renninger).
Here’s a seriously wonderful five-minute video explainer of brain-friendly feedback. I propose that you and your team watch it before you complete your feedback profiles:
So, do share this with your team and do try this at work! I would love to hear how you get on. Good luck!
👉 Check out my New Ways of Working online course if you are curious to learn more about feedback and other patterns found in progressive organisations: https://www.marco.work/course.