How do you give unsolicited feedback?
It’s easier when you’re the boss, because you have a presumptive right to give feedback at any time to those below you. You should be home free if you show a little savvy by (a) pairing the criticism with a dose of praise, (b) offering it in private, and (c) making the criticism about a task or a skill instead of about the person. (E.g. “I really like what you’re doing with this project . . . but I think this presentation might have been clearer if . . .”)
It’s easier if you’re giving feedback to the boss — at least if the boss is mature about soliciting and listening to feedback.
It’s easier when you’re working on the same project, because there are plenty of opportunities to raise concerns.
But what about other situations? What about all the other people you interact with in the course of your work? How can you use your insights, skills, base of knowledge, and so on to offer honest help to someone you know could use it?
I don’t have the answers to this one, despite having faced this situation any number of times in my career. So please share your own wisdom — I’m all ears.
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(Antique report card image from Marion Doss.)
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Interesting question and scenarios! As an Open Innovation evangelist/specialist, I spend most of my day immersed in the realm of feedback, ideas and suggestions. Your question is different, if I understand it correctly, than what I usually deal with, which is enabling companies to set up online suggestion boxes and co-creation/idea platforms to tap ideas and feedback from consumers, employees and clients.
If you’re wondering how a company can set up an internal system – and culture – that would enable employees to give unsolicited feedback to their peers … hmmmm. Putting thinking cap on. What if the boss tells everyone that he/she would like to encourage feedback and creative innovation at all levels, first by being open to it him/herself. Then asking each employee to be open to it as well. And then a system can be put in place where employees (not using real names?) could drop feedback in each others’ ‘suggestion boxes’. That’s one thought. Or am I complicating it too much?
I guess what I meant to say, in summation, is that you can turn ‘unsolicited’ around, and encourage everyone to be open to feedback at all levels, thereby making feedback welcome (Feedback soliciting Welcome here!)
I’m concerned that you’ve used the term “feedback” in this post to mean criticism. Feedback can and should be of many forms, including praise, thanks, and kudos. Too often, people respond when something seems wrong but forget to say “great job” or “Thank you” when something goes right.
This ties in with your comment of “pairing criticism with a dose of praise”. If you’re known for only providing criticism, everyone will expect a “but” (“I really like what you’re doing with this project . . . but”) and knowing its coming won;t make it easier to take — and will dilute the praise because we’re just waiting for the “but…” that always follows.
Take the time to be sure that you ALWAYS provide feedback. Ensure that positive feedback occurs more than half of the time. Become known as an honest and fair evaluator. Then, when you have criticism, no one will think “Yeah, but s/he’s always criticising.”
Great stuff to think about. I don’t know that being the boss always makes it easier. I’ve had the experience of having communication deepen with former employees once they’ve moved on to other teams (or organizations) and I’m no longer in a boss role. At that point the gloves are off and anything can be discussed honestly without concern about reviews, merit raises, etc. So I strive to give & receive feedback as though there were no organizational roles or expectations in place at all times.
I’ve got “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith on the way from Amazon. I understand he talks a lot about “feedforward.” The concept as it’s been explained to me is this: you share information with a focus on what needs to be done now in order to achieve a goal instead of what was done rightly or wrongly in the past. People tell me it’s powerful, I’ll be curious to see if the book lives up to the word-of-mouth hype.
Fantastic topic! I find that checking my ego at the door is the best way to open up communication.
I take the following approach:
1) Acknowledge to yourself ahead of time that your assumptions/judgment may be wrong. This is small but critical.
2) Address the situation from a perspective of curiosity rather than judgment. It feels less threatening to the person being questioned, and we all learn something this way.
3) Assume that the person being questioned is an expert in their specialty (yes, even if you doubt it). They may have sound logic behind their choices. Ask for it. Nicely.
4) Allow the person receiving the feedback to be directly responsible for choosing a better path. Ask for their expert opinion on what you think are better options. If you allow them to think through a few options, they may reach your same conclusion. And this way, they’ll be more vested in implementing the solution. Let them retain their ‘guru’ title and worlds will open up for you.
Vicki — Great points. I’ve been thinking about this for days now — I may write a follow up post on the distinction between “feedback” and “criticism.”
Russ — I’d love to hear more about “feedforward” once you’ve read that. I wonder about how it applies to one of those cases when the person recieving it needs to acknowledge past mistakes for the sake of growth.
Sharon — Interesting — and no doubt fruitful — approach. I’m going to consider how I might apply this in situations I face.
[...] the comments of last week’s post on unsolicited feedback, Vicki offered this useful [...]