the art of giving and receiving feedback

United States Government Accountability Office

Accountability Integrity Reliability

The Art of Giving, Receiving, and Eliciting

Feedback

Beverly L. Norwood

Director of Leadership and Executive Programs

U.S. Government Accountability Office

July 26, 2012

Accountability Integrity Reliability 2

How do you react to the prospect of giving, receiving, or eliciting feedback?


Key dimensions of leadership behavior – GAO 2007

Competence

Communication Vision

Self Knowledge

Empowering People & Teams

PersonalIntegrity


GAO Consensus: Self-knowledge is knowing and understanding… your personal and professional values, beliefs, needs,

strengths, and weaknesses

your own leadership style and its relationship to your values, beliefs, needs, strengths, and weaknesses

how you impact others around you—up, down, and sideways

how your style fits with or should be adapted for various circumstances and people


Rules for the Road

• Remain open to improving your self-knowledge

• Be mindful of the emotional responses that giving, receiving, and eliciting feedback may trigger for you and the others involved

• Prepare yourself to give, receive, or elicit feedback by anticipating your reactions and the reactions of others and by practicing what you will say and do to maintain a constructive dialogue


Tools for Road

• Clear expectations

• What can you and others control, influence, and simply have to live with

• The continuum for giving and eliciting feedback

• Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) Model


Expectations are critical

Consider…

Have you taken the time to set clear expectations for those you supervise?

For example, have you given your direct reports examples of work products that reflect the quality and level of detail you are looking for?

Do you know what your direct reports expect or want from you?


Who Is In Control?

1. We are in control.

2. We can influence.

3. We have no control.

1

23


Continuum for Giving and Eliciting Feedback


Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) Model

• Situation: Capture the situation (e.g., in the meeting with Joe yesterday, in the kitchen this morning when we were discussing x, or in the meeting with the requester on Friday).

• Behavior: Describe the behavior (e.g., you interrupted, you did not complete your assignment on time, or you arrived late for work).

• Impact: Describe the impact (“so what?”) on you, on coworkers, on an engagement/program, or on the organization (e.g., because you kept interrupting your team members in the meeting, they all shut down and we didn’t have a chance to discuss the ideas of others).


Giving Effective Feedback

Effective feedback enables the receiver to walk away understanding EXACTLY what he or she did and the impact that it had on you and/or the situation. The feedback should be:

Timely Clear Specific Nonjudgmental Actionable

Remember: Situation, Behavior, Impact (SBI)


Giving Effective Feedback

• Creating and delivering a specific message based on observed performance is key to effective feedback.

• When you tell a direct report, coworker, or even your boss that s/he is a good leader, or that s/he communicates well, or that s/he needs to be more strategic, you may believe that you are providing helpful feedback, but these statements only evaluate or interpret behavior.

• They don’t describe behavior in a sufficiently specific way that a person can learn and develop by repeating or avoiding the behavior.


Giving Feedback: The Dozen Do’s• Be specific when describing the situation

• Be specific when describing the behavior

• Acknowledge the impact on you

• Judge the behavior

• Pay attention to body language

• Use verbatim quotes (when possible)

• Recreate the behavior, if appropriate

• Give feedback in a timely manner

• Give feedback, check for understanding, then STOP

• Do say “I felt” or “ I was” to frame your impact statement

• Focus on a single message

• Be sensitive to the emotional impact of your feedback

• Source: Center for Creative Leadership: Feedback That Works: How to Build and Delivery Your Message, Sloan R. Weitzel


Giving Feedback: The Dozen Don’ts• Assume

• Be vague

• Use accusations

• Judge the person

• Pass along vague feedback from others

• Give advice unless asked

• Psychoanalyze

• Qualify your feedback by backing out

• Use examples from your own experience

• Generalize with words like “always” or “never”

• Label your feedback in advance

• Sandwich your feedback with words like “but”

• Source: Center for Creative Leadership: Feedback That Works: How to Build and Delivery Your Message, Sloan R. Weitzel


Receiving Feedback:

• Listen Attentively

• Repeat only what you heard

• Ask for specifics, including what you are doing well

• Say “Thank You”

• Ask if you can check back


Common Reasons for Not Eliciting Feedback• We don’t know how

• We don’t know who

• We don’t know when

• We don’t believe that we need to ask

• We fear the answer

• We fear the person we’re asking

• We fear the consequences of asking


Eliciting Feedback: Consider

Whether you can stand to hear the answer, before you ask the question

• Who to ask

• When to ask

• How to ask

• How to graciously show understanding if/when others prefer not to give you feedback


Eliciting Feedback: The Dos

• Set the stage

• Ask permission to ask

• Respect those who do not wish to provide feedback

• Explain your purpose/goal

• Explain how you would like to receive feedback (e.g. Situation-Behavior-Impact—SBI--Model)

• Ask open ended questions (scripted, neutral)


Eliciting Feedback: The Don’ts

Don’t…

• Surprise people

• Create a situation where the feedback provider feels backed into a corner

• Ask threatening questions

• Defend, explain, or rationalize

• Retaliate

• Burn bridges


Questions and Contact Information

• Questions???

• Contact information: Beverly Norwood, Director of Leadership and Executive Programs, GAO (202) 512-6512 or [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

the art of giving and receiving feedback

Career