Why Is It So Hard To Get Real Feedback At Work?
At institutionalized firms, the intent around 360 reviews is good. And a ton of work goes into it.
You solicit the views of a dozen co-workers who are anonymously invited to provide feedback.
Your colleagues eventually find time to type their feedback into the system.
A talented HR professional distills the key points using available data.
You review the output with your Manager.
The bust in the model is step 2. It’s a mediocre dataset.
Think about what it’s like for you when YOU are asked to provide written feedback. Thoughts swirling in your head like:
I’m really busy and this is so painful.
I know HR and Managers will see this — I care about this person and don’t want to be too critical and hurt their promotion prospects or pay.
Alternatively, I’m annoyed with this person and am going to lay into them in a professional but sharp way.
I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what I like or don’t like about this person’s working style.
Whether you care deeply and would like to provide constructive feedback but hedge so as not to hurt the person, aren’t really sure how you feel or have an axe to grind, your swirling thoughts interfere with articulating actionable feedback.
Q: So how do you take feedback and make it actionable?
A: Borrow a couple tactics from Executive Coaches.
Coaching Tactics 101
When a seasoned coach interviews a coworker to provide feedback on you, the coach is not a passive stenographer.
I am aware the feedback giver has a lot of variables. They might:
Be busy.
Have anxiety about giving feedback.
Be unconscious of their true feelings towards their peer.
Have compartmentalized what they don’t like and rationalized why it’s ok.
First, I create enough space to coregulate their physiological unease and nonverbally signal it’s ok to share more frankly. This looks like silently joining them in any discomfort or lack of clarity. It’s energetic, non-rational, right brain work.
The most common defense which comes up is a VAGUE GENERALIZATION. This sounds like:
“Stan is great; he just needs more reps.”
“Susan needs to work on her communication.”
“Kyle needs to be a better leader.”
“Shelley needs to speak up more.”
Unfortunately, feedback givers often get away with these superficial editorials in the written feedback of regular 360 processes. There’s no one there to ask them to go deeper.
In a live interview, it’s important to consider why the speaker is using the defense of a vague generalization / editorial.
As a tactic to uncover real, actionable feedback:
I permit the utterance of the vague statement,
Allow for some uncomfortable silence where the person’s not sure whether they’ll get away with the superficial thought, and then
a) I’ll jump in with an “I’m curious, what’s a recent example of something that happened where it occurred to you that ‘Stan needs more reps”?”
b) To which the person may reply “I don’t really remember.”
c) To which I say “that’s ok, you’re saying ‘Stan just needs more reps’ and I’m wondering what specifically he needs more of? — and then, violating puritan coaching protocol and drawing on my knowledge as a buyside expert — I dangle some options:
i) “Is it the types of deals he sources,”
ii) “The way he presents to you and IC”
iii) “or something else?”
By granularly unbundling the elements of the overarching vague statement, I am helping the speaker become conscious of and articulate the roots of their anesthetized generalization.
Through this coaching process, the unusable vague feedback of “Stan just needs more reps” becomes:
“Stan needs to post me more more along the way and show more more of how the sausage is made. He tends to do it all in a vacuum and then present it to me with a bow; I don’t like this approach. I like Partners who post me throughout the process and let me in. Maybe I know someone who could help us do better diligence and win the deal. I’m older and at some level I find it arrogant when younger people assume they don’t need my help. That’s why I’m here. I need Stan to feel more comfortable consulting me and not worrying that I will think less of him. Asking questions is a sign of strength, not weakness or incompetence. I know he’s talented but we aren’t communicating in this way that’s going to make our partnership a success.”
So What Can You Do With Your 360 Feedback?
Let’s say you receive feedback of “bring more interesting deals.” You could ask a skilled coach like me with deep buyside expertise to help you figure out what this means — but here’s how you can help yourself uncover specific, actionable feedback.
Ask your Manager if it would be ok to follow up on some feedback. Asking permission prevents defensiveness and brings them in more open-minded.
Thank them for the consolidated written feedback and say “I saw ‘bring more interesting deals’ in my review. I’m curious, what is ‘interesting’ to you and committee?”
Manager — “we need you to have a tighter filter on your funnel and bring more actionable ideas.” #VAGUE, TOTAL PUNT.
You — “thanks, I’m wondering of what I’ve brought lately — what do you feel is not actionable and why?”
Manager — “we need you to bring things we like as a firm.” AGAIN, COMPLETELY UNHELPFUL.
You — “I understand that, and I’m curious — what’s a recent deal that I or someone else brought that you found actionable.”
Manager — “Project X”
You — “Ok, what specifically was it about Project X that you felt it actionable for the firm.”
Manager — “#2 in market with large TAM, undermanaged sales force, opportunity to invest to grow with low leverage. We have a history of running this playbook. We were willing to pay up given these fact patterns.” FINALLY REAL FEEDBACK.
You “What if anything that I brought over the past year was close?”
Manager “I liked XYZ and ABC but one was too expensive and the other too much commodity risk.” MORE REAL FEEDBACK
You “What did I bring that made you think I am not doing a great job?”
Manager “Deal X and Y were horrible for the following reasons, I don’t understand why you spent time and resources on those and I’d like you to be more judicious in the future.” EVEN MORE REAL FEEDBACK
It’s not easy to get your IC / Manager to provide tangible, specific examples. However, it’s the only way you can get to better understand your customer’s preferences. (If your IC / Manager is unable to describe their preference, you may have a problem — style creep by committee, new members who disagree with the founder or other confusion from above.)
You’re like a chef foraging on the street for deals that appetize your IC.
If they’re not eating your food, figure out what they like and go find more of that.
The only way you can understand what they want is by drilling into the specifics of their often vague characterizations.
#privateequity #directlending #growthequity
Related Insights
Successful Private Equity Partners Can Clearly Answer These Questions
How The Most Successful Private Equity Dealmakers Get Conviction In A Deal
Additional Reading
The Lies We Tell Ourselves: How to Face the Truth, Accept Yourself, and Create a Better Life, by Jon Frederickson.
Jeff Fine, Master Relational Therapist who expertly probes and clarifies vague statements.
Dr. Laura Crawshaw, The Boss Whisperer and unparalleled practitioner of soliciting coworker feedback.
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