The Effective Manager

by Mark Horstman

don't give feedback that's more than a week old.

Positive and negative feedback sound identical.

The anger is what's driving my desire, not my direct's effective future behavior.

Question 1: Am I Angry?

Question 2: Do I Want to Remind or Punish?

Question 3: Can I Let It Go?

If you're not angry, if it's not about the past or about punishment, and if you can let it go, then go ahead and give the feedback.

Remember that feedback is about the future, right? Suppose you don't give the negative feedback, and then, for whatever reason, the behaviors that you were going to address don't occur again. Seriously, what's wrong with that? Just take credit for the magical change! Doing nothing worked.

The Shot across the Bow.

Basically, a shot across the bow says, “I can reach you, and I can hit you if I want to.”

In other words, we recommend that you give in when a direct argues or gets defensive.

Managers report to us that 91 percent of directs, when given negative feedback in our format, change their behavior after one instance.

Directs who feel that they can't make a couple of mistakes—even in the same area—get defensive quickly.

Standard feedback is about small behaviors. Systemic feedback addresses the moral hazard of a direct committing to new behavior but then failing to follow through. We can tolerate directs who make mistakes. We cannot tolerate directs who repeatedly make commitments they don't keep.

You should use systemic feedback when you have already given six instances of standard feedback in a period of time that indicates a pattern, and the direct has not been engaging in the behavior they've committed to.

It is not appropriate to deliver systemic feedback in a casual way. Committing to actions and then not following through is notably more serious than missing a quality deadline, even if it is done repeatedly.

We Must Be Faithful to the Feedback Model's Step 4.

Implied Sanctions Must Be Delivered.

However, if we promise sanctions, we must deliver them when and how we say they are going to be delivered, if behavior change is not forthcoming.

After 12 weeks of having One On Ones, you can start the process of delivering your performance communications in the Manager Tools Feedback Model.

Announce Your Intention in Your Weekly Staff Meeting

Feedback is an individual behavior, but announcing it to the team says that everyone is going to treated similarly.

Schedule 30 Minutes for Your Briefing

Cover the Purpose of Feedback

The fear that your directs will feel about feedback will cause them to attribute to you motives that you are unlikely to have in your heart. So, you've got to counteract that fear and tell them plainly why you're using the feedback model. Tell them when you give them feedback, you're focused on the future.

Walk Them through Each Step of the Feedback Model

“I've got an obligation to help you be at your very best every day. If you're like me, you're not always sure that your good work is being recognized or that it's what the boss wants. And you're not sure if you're always doing it exactly right or if there is a better way to do it. The feedback model is just a way for us to talk about what you're doing and what the results are.”

Tell your directs that negative feedback isn't about punishment; it's about doing things better. It is about the future.

Give Only Positive Feedback for Eight Weeks

If you are wondering how much feedback you should give, shoot for one item of feedback to one direct per day as you start. This does not mean one item of feedback to each of your directs but, rather, just one item of feedback to any one member of your team. Start slowly.

Add in Negative Feedback after Eight Weeks

Stay as Positive as You Can

If you believe you should be “vigilant” against “mistakes,” two things will happen gradually: you'll start seeing all the mistakes, and you'll stop seeing all the good behaviors.

The third critical behavior for effective managers is to ask for higher levels of performance: Ask for More.

If a direct is capable of more/better/higher performance, the manager is obligated to work hard to make it happen.

Many managers are afraid of introducing conflict, fearing it may increase turnover rates (even though, of course, the opposite is the case).

Manager Tools defines coaching as a systemic effort to improve the performance of a direct in a specific skill area.

Step 1: Collaborate to Set a Goal Step 2: Collaborate to Brainstorm Resources Step 3: Collaborate to Create a Plan Step 4: The Direct Acts and Reports on the Plan

Coaching is most effective when it is collaborative. Managers know where the most likely opportunities are, but the direct is the one who will be learning and growing, and the manager can't do that for the direct any more than the direct can always be right picking the topic or knowing the resources.

Manager Tools uses a goal structure called DBQ: Deadline, Behavior, Quality. We start with the Deadline portion because deadlines drive behavior. Also, because we remember that coaching is a more powerful tool than feedback, we usually don't set deadlines of less than four months away. If someone can change their behavior in less than four months, the person probably just needs a lot of feedback and we don't need a coaching plan.

We recommend you write down the coaching engagement goal on your One-On-One forms.

You don't have to know how to get someone from start to finish to stop interrupting. You only have to know how to start them to learn how to not interrupt.

The idea with all brainstorming is simply to go for volume, not accuracy.

The steps in the plan each have three parts: a deadline, a behavior, and the reporting that the task is done, which is inherent in the task. The reporting (see the list below) is what makes a task a deliverable.

Note here something that surprises a lot of managers: we're only going to plan the first one to two weeks. We are not going to plan the entire six months' worth of work.

If you're like most managers, you've learned that if you assign additional work, and give it a long deadline, it's unlikely to get done.

the vast majority of directs struggle with long deadlines.

And at some level you know that urgency is a key driver of organizational behavior. You know that, if you have to do something and there's no deadline, all other things being equal, you're going to act on the tasks that have deadlines that are reportable or enforceable, and you won't do the one that has no deadline.

the best way to help people improve is by creating short-term tasks.

Deadlines that are going to be enforced but that are believed to be reasonable and reachable are a big facilitator of coaching success.