Management Coaching: How and When to Give Feedback
Management Coaching: How and When to Give Feedback
“When I see something that worries me or upsets me, how do I call attention to it in the moment and provide feedback, without coming across as judgmental or overly critical, and without making people feel like they’re being attacked?”.
Listen up, all you owners and managers out there. The answer is in how you relate to your staff. In other words, it has less to do with exactly what you say and when you say it, and more to do with how you relate to your people. Think about how you would talk to someone who’s been a solid partner for years…someone who has fought along side you through many professional battles; who has both succeeded and failed with you. Someone with whom you don’t always agree, but who has earned your respect.
How would you give feedback to that person in a similar situation? The biggest difference is that you probably wouldn’t have to think about it at all. You would have a relationship with that person, based on all you’ve been through together, that would provide an empowering context for anything you needed to say. You wouldn’t strategize about how to say something; you’d just say it in whatever way it occurs to you, and you’d clarify or explain if they didn’t seem to follow you.
One of the smartest things you can do to empower yourself as a leader is to create a culture around you where corrective feedback and constructive criticism are expected, welcomed and valued. You can start creating this kind of culture by grounding yourself in a fundamental context of respect and commitment to the growth and success of your people and your organization.
Standing in that place of respect and commitment to people, be straight with them. Say what’s on your mind and don’t worry about how it comes across…the way you would with someone who has been a real partner. If you relate to people that way, and you show them that there’s room for correction and feedback…that the culture of your business actually supports and encourages correction and feedback…and that there’s nothing wrong with, and nothing personal about communicating in this way, then they’ll learn to be your partners.
If you hold back or worry about how you’re coming across, you’ll teach the people who work for you that they need to hold back and worry about how they come across…you’ll build that struggling and worrying right into the culture, instead of building partnership and communication.
The bottom line here is this: You’re on a mission. Your business is a mission designed to accomplish something in the world. When you’re on a mission, there isn’t always time to measure every word and carefully consider everyone’s feelings. You have to tell people what to do, and trust that they’re big enough, mature enough, and capable enough to jump up and get in action.
If your house catches on fire, your mission is to get your family out of the burning house. You’re not going to be cautious and polite about it. You’re not going to hesitate to tell your family to get out. You would easily risk coming off as rude and controlling, knowing that lives depended on your clear communication. Your work is no different. It’s urgent. Any organization requires urgent and powerful communication in order to thrive in a competitive marketplace.
Your people are working for you because they want to be on a mission and they want to succeed. Practice relating to them as such. Keep your eye on how you relate to your people vs. how they relate to you. Do you relate to them as small, frail little creatures in need of emotional bolstering, or do you relate to them as confident, competent professionals serving a mission of critical importance?
As long as you’re coming from a context of respect and commitment (to both personal and organizational growth and success), give as much feedback as you can, so your people can learn quickly, grow professionally, and be successful.
Management Coaching How and When to Give Feedback - To learn more about this author, visit Erek Ostrowski's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
A number of my clients, small business owners and managers mostly, have asked me for coaching on how and when to provide feedback or constructive criticism for their staff. This seems to be an area where many people in small business leadership really struggle. The question I hear from owners and managers is something like this:
“When I see something that worries me or upsets me, how do I call attention to it in the moment and provide feedback, without coming across as judgmental or overly critical, and without making people feel like they’re being attacked?”.
Listen up, all you owners and managers out there. The answer is in how you relate to your staff. In other words, it has less to do with exactly what you say and when you say it, and more to do with how you relate to your people. Think about how you would talk to someone who’s been a solid partner for years…someone who has fought along side you through many professional battles; who has both succeeded and failed with you. Someone with whom you don’t always agree, but who has earned your respect.
How would you give feedback to that person in a similar situation? The biggest difference is that you probably wouldn’t have to think about it at all. You would have a relationship with that person, based on all you’ve been through together, that would provide an empowering context for anything you needed to say. You wouldn’t strategize about how to say something; you’d just say it in whatever way it occurs to you, and you’d clarify or explain if they didn’t seem to follow you.
One of the smartest things you can do to empower yourself as a leader is to create a culture around you where corrective feedback and constructive criticism are expected, welcomed and valued. You can start creating this kind of culture by grounding yourself in a fundamental context of respect and commitment to the growth and success of your people and your organization.
Standing in that place of respect and commitment to people, be straight with them. Say what’s on your mind and don’t worry about how it comes across…the way you would with someone who has been a real partner. If you relate to people that way, and you show them that there’s room for correction and feedback…that the culture of your business actually supports and encourages correction and feedback…and that there’s nothing wrong with, and nothing personal about communicating in this way, then they’ll learn to be your partners.
If you hold back or worry about how you’re coming across, you’ll teach the people who work for you that they need to hold back and worry about how they come across…you’ll build that struggling and worrying right into the culture, instead of building partnership and communication.
The bottom line here is this: You’re on a mission. Your business is a mission designed to accomplish something in the world. When you’re on a mission, there isn’t always time to measure every word and carefully consider everyone’s feelings. You have to tell people what to do, and trust that they’re big enough, mature enough, and capable enough to jump up and get in action.
If your house catches on fire, your mission is to get your family out of the burning house. You’re not going to be cautious and polite about it. You’re not going to hesitate to tell your family to get out. You would easily risk coming off as rude and controlling, knowing that lives depended on your clear communication. Your work is no different. It’s urgent. Any organization requires urgent and powerful communication in order to thrive in a competitive marketplace.
Your people are working for you because they want to be on a mission and they want to succeed. Practice relating to them as such. Keep your eye on how you relate to your people vs. how they relate to you. Do you relate to them as small, frail little creatures in need of emotional bolstering, or do you relate to them as confident, competent professionals serving a mission of critical importance?
As long as you’re coming from a context of respect and commitment (to both personal and organizational growth and success), give as much feedback as you can, so your people can learn quickly, grow professionally, and be successful.
Management Coaching How and When to Give Feedback - To learn more about this author, visit Erek Ostrowski's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
|
I've created this section on my site to share some of the incredible tools that I've used to build my business. I hope you too can benefit from them and look forward to hearing your feedback on the reviews! - Visit Evan Carmichael's Website |
|||
Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
|||
John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Erek's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
|
||
|
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Make Attitude Your Ally How To Get Media Attention Telemarketing Success Think Networking Instant Scripts |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Business Plans
Top Business Plan Blogs | |
 |
Top 50 Raising Capital Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
