Why Feedback is Just the start

Beyond Feedback: Nine Steps to Unleash Excellence

Follow these nine steps to give your team member the best chance of putting your feedback to good use, improving performance while reducing your own and the colleague’s frustration. 

1. Manage your mindset. The goal is to deliver feedback that is kind, clear, specific and sincere, which cannot occur if you are angry, frustrated or exhausted. If your colleague has let you down, especially if it’s not the first time, you must be thoughtful in your approach. Compartmentalize or lessen your negative feelings before delivering feedback. Do not make the common mistake of delivering feedback that is contemporaneous and merely a venting of your frustration with the team member. Instead, focus your energy on supporting the person’s professional development and resolving the problem for the long term. 
2. Uncover why. Regardless of symptoms such as late or sloppy work, your underperforming team member has an undiagnosed challenge. To change the behavior, you must identify the challenge and guide the person in surmounting it. Typical challenges include:
   • Sloppy, superficial or tardy work product. The most common complaints I hear from managers are that a team member’s work is sloppy, superficial or tardy. The underlying challenges are that the person typically underestimates the amount of time that it will take to successfully complete a project compounded by inadequate understanding of expectations, including the pivotal issues and factual nuances.
   • The solution? Review the most recent disappointing work product. Show the team member very specifically what you did to achieve excellence. Limit yourself to not more than three points or themes for improvement so as not to overwhelm. Next, help the colleague determine the time it will take to successfully complete an assignment. Compare to actual hours spent. Coach your team member by asking when it would have been best to have started the project. Repeat this process prospectively with each assignment. 
   • Analysis paralysis. One of the most common challenges I see people experience is the fear that one small mistake will result in a client or career catastrophe. While, yes of course, managers need team members to perform at a high level and thus perfectionism sounds good, it’s only good if it is adaptive perfectionism, or what I refer to as a commitment to excellence. Maladaptive perfectionism, on the other hand, devastates the person’s performance as the person catastrophizes every step as an opportunity to fail, becoming negative, exponentially increasing the time needed to complete even the simplest of tasks. This person is also likely stressed and anxious, as he or she loses perspective and judgment.
   • The solution? Consider that bite-sizing an assignment would provide the colleague with line of sight to each end-product, increasing confidence while reducing the anxiety-inducing uncertainty and ambiguity. By keeping the team member on track, this practice also reduces the likelihood of receiving a disastrous end-product on the eve of a critical deadline. Mentor with substantive questions at milestones; don’t just ask, “Is it going OK?” The team member may also benefit from additional support from another colleague or the organization’s professional-development staff. 
3. The solution? Consider that bite-sizing an assignment would provide the colleague with line of sight to each end-product, increasing confidence while reducing the anxiety-inducing uncertainty and ambiguity. By keeping the team member on track, this practice also reduces the likelihood of receiving a disastrous end-product on the eve of a critical deadline. Mentor with substantive questions at milestones; don’t just ask, “Is it going OK?” The team member may also benefit from additional support from another colleague or the organization’s professional-development staff. 
4. The solution? Review the most recent disappointing work product. Show the team member very specifically what you did to achieve excellence. Limit yourself to not more than three points or themes for improvement so as not to overwhelm. Next, help the colleague determine the time it will take to successfully complete an assignment. Compare to actual hours spent. Coach your team member by asking when it would have been best to have started the project. Repeat this process prospectively with each assignment. 
   • Analysis paralysis. One of the most common challenges I see people experience is the fear that one small mistake will result in a client or career catastrophe. While, yes of course, managers need team members to perform at a high level and thus perfectionism sounds good, it’s only good if it is adaptive perfectionism, or what I refer to as a commitment to excellence. Maladaptive perfectionism, on the other hand, devastates the person’s performance as the person catastrophizes every step as an opportunity to fail, becoming negative, exponentially increasing the time needed to complete even the simplest of tasks. This person is also likely stressed and anxious, as he or she loses perspective and judgment.
   • The solution? Consider that bite-sizing an assignment would provide the colleague with line of sight to each end-product, increasing confidence while reducing the anxiety-inducing uncertainty and ambiguity. By keeping the team member on track, this practice also reduces the likelihood of receiving a disastrous end-product on the eve of a critical deadline. Mentor with substantive questions at milestones; don’t just ask, “Is it going OK?” The team member may also benefit from additional support from another colleague or the organization’s professional-development staff. 
5. The solution? Consider that bite-sizing an assignment would provide the colleague with line of sight to each end-product, increasing confidence while reducing the anxiety-inducing uncertainty and ambiguity. By keeping the team member on track, this practice also reduces the likelihood of receiving a disastrous end-product on the eve of a critical deadline. Mentor with substantive questions at milestones; don’t just ask, “Is it going OK?” The team member may also benefit from additional support from another colleague or the organization’s professional-development staff. 
6. The solution? Consider that bite-sizing an assignment would provide the colleague with line of sight to each end-product, increasing confidence while reducing the anxiety-inducing uncertainty and ambiguity. By keeping the team member on track, this practice also reduces the likelihood of receiving a disastrous end-product on the eve of a critical deadline. Mentor with substantive questions at milestones; don’t just ask, “Is it going OK?” The team member may also benefit from additional support from another colleague or the organization’s professional-development staff. 
7. Combat conflict avoidance. Many managers avoid having uncomfortable conversations. To combat any conflict avoidance, remind yourself that this person will likely continue to flounder without your help. And, yes, you are actually helping through mentoring. 
8. Be specific and evidence based. Avoid making general statements such as “your work is sloppy.” Not only is this off-putting, but it’s also likely to trigger defensiveness. Point to specific examples, stating the concern factually and with a neutral tone. For example, “In Project X, I noticed inconsistent citation formats on pages 3 through 7 and several typos in the first section.”
9. Focus on patterns not isolated incidents. Everyone makes mistakes, especially when working under a short deadline. Don’t nitpick these mistakes. Instead, address recurring issues that suggest deeper problems with organization, attention to detail or other developmental need. 
10. Frame feedback as professional development. Present your feedback as an opportunity for growth rather than punishment, a reason for shame, or being “in trouble.” 
11. Clarify expectations. Remember, radical candor and effective management and mentoring, require that the team member understand what you, the client, and situation require. Clearly articulate your standards and what success looks like. Provide examples of the end work product when you can. Share personal experience outlining how you have met similar expectations, including your process. It’s also important that amidst your busy practice, you carve out the time to communicate what the colleague has done well. Not only is that good management, but reinforcing the successes helps the colleague learn. Doing so also makes the critical feedback more palatable. 
12. Develop a progress plan together. Collaborate on specific steps for improvement, which might include using checklists, time-management strategies and regular meetings to monitor both project and colleague progress.
13. Follow up consistently. Schedule regular check-ins to monitor progress and provide additional guidance.