Facing the Risk of Upward Feedback Are the Inmates Running the Asylum?

Leadership Coaching Notes February 2008

Facing the Risk of Upward Feedback
Are the Inmates Running the Asylum?

Jim was a senior executive who sponsored an annual feedback program for his managers, but he was seriously worried. While the program provided helpful feedback, there was a dangerous side effect developing. For fear of receiving poor scores and criticism, his managers were getting “soft” on holding others accountable. Some managers avoided confronting poor performance and the potential of upsetting staff. They lowered their standards rather than risking poor upward feedback. He saw the trend and asked for help to reverse it.

What Worked

Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later: When he investigated the problem, Jim discovered his managers didn’t consistently establish clear accountabilities and standards at the beginning of assignments. This created a weak basis for assessing performance at the end of them. Without clear expectations, staff felt unjustly criticized when told that they fell short.

Jim taught managers that they had two choices: take time before the assignment to agree on deliverables, quality standards and due dates or suffer problems and pushback later. He taught managers how, by creating clarity and agreement upfront, they could avoid a lot of pain and create a feedback process that staff found valuable, even when they fell short of expectations.

What You Can Do: Check: Do you invest most of your performance management time up front? At the beginning of every assignment do you ask: Do we agree on specific deliverables? Specific due dates? Specific quality expectations? Specific resourcing for success? Do you encourage your direct reports to create joint clarity with their direct reports too? When all parties can say “yes,” this clarity will build better results and avoid conflicts later. If the answer is “no,” you will likely “pay later” with contentious conversations over disappointing results.

Strengthen Relationships All Year: Jim observed that there were often just one or two people who scored his managers harshly. He suspected some managers ignored these “thorns in their sides” because they were so troublesome. Rather than sidestep them, Jim encouraged managers to identify performance problems quickly, address them promptly and coach staff each time they
delivered unacceptable results.

What You Can Do: Check: Do you sidestep performance issues? If you do, find an internal or external coach. Learn to coach your people to improve their performance and motivation. You can build appreciation for even tough feedback. Check: How frequently does your staff approach you with questions, concerns and requests? If they don’t approach you enough, encourage them to come to you with questions and say “thanks” when they do. Invite staff to admit confusion, overload or difficulties and ask for help. It models best practice for everyone when you “put out the welcome mat.”

Learn from Upward Feedback: Jim had intended his feedback program to help managers improve and support them in taking the next steps in their careers. Instead he learned that managers feared that poor scores would penalize their career options. Jim took a hard look at how he used results. He stopped expecting only A+ results. He committed to use feedback solely to support success. When issues showed up, he assured his managers that they had his support in addressing them. He coached managers on how to improve going forward instead of criticizing past performance. He based career moves as much on how effectively they learned and improved results as on any one set of scores. His active support for their growth shifted managers’ fears and shifted his program’s impact from negative to positive.

What You Can Do: Examine how you use feedback data about your staff. Do you use it as a “magnifying glass” to focus on problems and failures? Or, do you use feedback to build new skills and confidence? Have you made it clear that learning and development is the primary purpose for your performance management program? Are you seeking feedback both ways in your reporting relationships? When you do, you have the basis for co-creating an empowering program for improving your organization.

Business Impact

Creating a culture of clear and constructive feedback is invaluable but takes time to develop. Rather than berate his managers, Jim changed his leadership style. He looked the issue squarely in the face and discovered he was a “root cause” of the problem. He started coaching his managers in the ways he wanted them to coach their staff. Jim reversed the early negative trend and was gratified (and relieved) to watch morale, performance, coaching and feedback scores improve.

What’s Next

Use and share these ideas. If leaders you coach are experiencing challenges similar to Jim’s and want to discuss how to achieve similar results, call me. I am never too busy for your referrals.

Call me for a free consultation to explore your goals and how a coaching program can help. I’ve worked with hundreds of leaders to improve their careers, lives and legacies. We welcome your inquiries and look forward to the opportunity to assist you. If you have other leadership challenges you’d like insight about, please, let us know.

Liked the article? Disturbed by it? Have any questions? Drop me a line mkimbell@corporateadventure.com . I’d love to hear from you!
Co-author and colleague Steve Lishansky is an executive coach who builds leadership and organizational effectiveness. His resume is available on our website www.corporateadventure.com or his www.LishanskyPartners.com. You can reach him at Steve@LishanskyPartners.com.

All the best,

Meredith Kimbell
Executive Advisor,Strategy Consultant
Corporate Adventure

Leadership Coaching Notes uses real or composite client examples drawn from 25 years of coaching and consulting with leaders committed to solving their toughest personal, interpersonal and organizational issues.
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is copyrighted by Meredith Kimbell © 2011. All rights reserved. You may reprint any or all of this material if you include the following:
“Leadership Coaching Notes © 2011 Meredith Kimbell, Corporate Adventure, Reston, VA. Used with permission.”