I am convinced that our traditional view of feedback as positive and negative is inadequate, limits great supervision and reduces potential performance. Look at the diagram in Figure 1 with three types of feedback. The need for three types of feedback results from there being two different causes of failure to meet performance or behavior expectations. As shown in the green and red rectangles, the two causes and the feedback required are:
- Redirection: Failure to perform was caused by the situation or the context of the performance – lack of training, ineffective supervision, unpredictable circumstances, unreasonable expectations.
- Negative: The situation cannot explain the failure; the failure to perform can only be explained by the employee’s personal characteristics – motivation, effort, commitment.
When feedback is viewed as only two types, failure to meet expectations is typically viewed as requiring negative feedback. Unfortunately, this often results in no feedback or an inappropriate reprimand because most inadequate performance situations require redirection feedback.
Below, we discuss positive and redirection.
Positive feedback
Think about how children, including your own, respond to positive comments. I think you will agree that they almost always respond very positively, often with great excitement. Are you, your partners, your employees, your family and your friends different from these children in their response to positive feedback? Let me suggest the answer is a lot no and a little yes.
The no is that our internal, emotional responses are remarkably similar. I believe everyone has positive emotional responses to positive feedback. The yes is that most of us do not show the joy of receiving positive feedback like children. Unfortunately, we have been socialized to believe that such expressions are not “adult-like.” Unfortunate, but true. The key is that we all respond positively to positive feedback.
The following are four critical attributes of effective positive feedback.
- Specific. Too often, positive feedback is “You are doing a great job” or “Great work.” Unfortunately, the employee may not know what he or she did that is being complimented. All feedback, including positive, must be specific. Examples: “I really appreciate you noticing and checking on the animal that was lying too long” or “Thank you for your continuing vigilance that the loads going into storage meet our quality criteria.”
- Timely. Do not pass GO, do not collect $500 … provide the positive feedback immediately. Positive feedback does not store well; the value will be largely depleted by the time of the next annual performance review (not that I am an advocate of traditional annual performance reviews).
- Genuine. You must mean what you say and show that you genuinely appreciate the great work the employee is doing. Genuine is a key component of the connection psychological need that has been proven to impact motivation. The employee must see that you value their contributions as a person, not just as a worker.
- Appropriate. Don Shula (football coach) states in Everyone’s a COACH that “Good performance should always be treated differently than poor performance.” This sounds obvious but not always followed. Positive feedback should only be given for positive behaviors or outcomes. Here, positive feedback is reserved for effort or improvement.
Redirection feedback
Redirection feedback helps employees address the reasons for the failure by providing necessary resources such as training, clarity, encouragement, support or adjusted expectations to achieve success. Redirection feedback can also be thought of as learning – learning to do the job exactly correctly to meet expectations.
The goal of redirection feedback is to improve performance without damaging the relationship with the employee. Providing redirection feedback, however, is not easy as employees often interpret it as negative feedback. None of us want to hear that our performance is lacking.
With two types of feedback when performance fails to meet expectations, determining the reason for the failure (the WHY) becomes crucial. The real or root cause must be determined.
When an employee fails to meet expectations, I encourage you first to ask the question: How did I contribute to this failure? It could be insufficient training, unclear expectations, inadequate supervision or unpredictable circumstances. Each of these means the employee did not have what he or she needed to meet expectations, meaning redirection feedback is needed. If you identified something in answering this question, provide redirection feedback to correct your deficiency and enable the employee to meet the expectations.
If you did not identify anything you did that contributed to the failure, the question now is: What is the root cause of the failure? What is needed is a similar analysis to what you do when you have production problems. Similarly, you ask "why" questions until you have identified the root cause of the failure.
Think about how doctors proceed when you go to them with one or more symptoms. They ask questions and do some probing until they are ready to proceed to resolve the root cause of your symptoms. Similarly, unmet employee expectations are a symptom; you ask questions and do some analysis until you have found one or more root causes.
Now the question is: Was the root cause something that was under the complete control of the employee? Possible answers include insufficient training, unclear expectations, inadequate supervision, unpredictable circumstances. In most situations, the answer will be that the root cause was not under the control of the employee. Employees rarely intentionally fail to meet expectations. You now need to provide redirection feedback to correct the cause of the failure and enabling the employee to meet expectations.
Only after answering these three questions and determining that nothing deterred the employee from meeting the expectation should you consider using negative feedback. Instead of our typical understanding of negative feedback as a reprimand, it should be provided as a choice to change the behavior resulting in the failure to meet expectations or incur a specified consequence.
A final comment
Excellent positive and redirection feedback will enhance your success as a supervisor and increase the performance and motivation of those you lead, supervise and coach.
