While it may be difficult to deliver effective feedback, it needs to be done. Engineer professionals want constructive criticism in order to better themselves and the work they do. A study of over 3,600 employees conducted by WorldatWork website revealed that 51% of them said they didn’t receive enough constructive feedback from their boss. Over 60% of the respondents stated they didn’t receive enough information to know what specifically to change.
What does this mean for engineer leaders?
You want to be the engineer leader that delivers feedback that is not only actionable and specific, but is tailored to the person it’s being given to.
You also want to be the engineer leader that provides feedback that builds the other person, not tear them down.
Feedback Delivery Method
The path to delivering effective feedback start’s with the end in mind. What is it that needs to change? What would the ideal outcome look like? Before you can tell someone they’ve missed the target, you have to know what the target looks like.
Expectations provide the target. I picked up early in my career the habit of setting expectations immediately upon assuming a leadership role. My first bosses did this and it helped place parameters around my roles and responsibilities. It also helped them in providing me with specific and actionable feedback - what they called course corrections.
Stated and explicit expectations are essential in any working relationship. Think of them like a contract between you and the other person. Contracts spell out what each party will do, how they will do it, and when it will be done. The expectations you establish with your subordinates won’t stifle their creativity or motivation unless they’re draconian. In fact, the opposite is likely to occur - because there is a vector, they can apply full thrust.
It’s about the other person, not about you. When you identify a deviation from expectation, frame the feedback you provide from the point of view of the other person. I’ve found that in most cases, people want to be successful in their work and will take action on feedback that is delivered in manner that builds them up, not tears them down.
The best way to provide constructive - building - feedback is to make it laser specific and something the other person can take action on. Telling a subordinate that they “just need to be a better communicator” might seem specific and actionable, but it isn’t.
One method I use to remember what constitutes effective feedback is the acronym CONSIST:
Constructive. Feedback doesn’t need to be wrapped in happy platitudes, nor should it. But it does need to be constructive. Again, the goal is one of building the skills and understanding of the person receiving the feedback.
Optimistic. Framing the feedback optimistically is meant to help both you and the receiver view the feedback with a growth mindset. What does this mean? Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford, is a leading expert in the psychology behind what makes people successful and happy. Her work deeply covers the concepts of the ‘growth’ versus ‘fixed’ mindset. In short, someone with a growth mindset believes that intelligence and behavior are things that can be changed. When feedback is delivered pessimistically, it makes very easy for both you and the receiver to slip into a fixed mindset, believing that the receiver’s intelligence and behavior cannot be changed, and hence, unable to learn from your feedback.
Navigable. Like a GPS assists us in finding destinations, effective feedback provides adequate guidance directing a person towards a specific change in behavior or task accomplishment. I don’t believe that this guidance ever needs to spell-out each step that’s required. It must, however, provide adequate detail to ensure the other person can take action on the specific improvements you are suggesting.
Safe. Providing feedback in a safe environment means providing the other person maneuver space to work on adjusting their behavior. Behaviours, like habits, can be good or bad and can take time to adjust. Even if the other person is quickly amenable to incorporating the feedback, it may take time to develop the muscle memory needed to fully eliminate the source of the feedback.
Immediate. Delivering feedback on an issue as soon as possible after the event provides all parties with the best chance of a learning opportunity. Waiting until a quarterly performance review makes it challenging for both parties to clearly recall issues of concern. Memory is a tenuous means to rely on for constructive feedback, so deliver it continuously and quickly.
Tough. If the ball gets dropped and you need to drop the hammer, do so on the problem and not the person. Be firm, but not mean. And whatever you do, do not criticize the person. Your role as the leader is to fix the problem and to help the person correct their behaviour or actions to 100% so the same issues doesn’t happen again.
Specific. As already mentioned, feedback needs to be precise in nature in order for it to be effective.
Your goal in delivering feedback is to eliminate wasted effort in the future and help the other person operate at their highest level possible.
What Role Was The Person Performing?
Here’s a twist on the standard model of feedback from leader to follower: from leader to leader/follower. In any given situation a person is either leading or following. The feedback that is given must then be framed in the context of what role that person was filling at the time.
This model comes from Marc and Sam Hurwitz’s book, Leadership is Half the Story: A Fresh Look at Followership, Leadership and Collaboration. While the feedback is situationally dependent (i.e. was the person leading or following), the content of the feedback message is no different: the message is specific and actionable.
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
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Think of the person you need to provide feedback to and why. It might be part of the annual performance review process or linked to a specific limiting performance action that’s holding her back.
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Consider the behavior or action you observed that needs to be addressed.
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Now consider what role the person was performing when you observed the behavior or action. Was she a leader or follower in that moment?
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What specific and actionable feedback can you provide the other person to help them adjust their performance?
By framing the feedback in the context of ‘leader’ or ‘follower’, you are not only refining your message, you’re helping the other person to consider adjustments to a specific limiting factor. That’s where the power of feedback pays dividends.
What are your experiences in providing feedback to employees, or peers, as an engineer leader?
Christian Knutson, P.E., PMP is an engineer, infrastructure program manager, coach and author. He has extensive experience in leadership, personnel and project management, engineering and strategy earned from a career as a civil engineering officer in the U.S. Air Force. He now coaches engineers enabling them to create an engineering career and life of fulfillment at The Engineering Career Coach.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net