Dr. Timothy M. Franz of St. John Fisher College: Giving Feedback; How To Be Honest Without Being Hurtful

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

A leader should surround themselves with great people. I’ve mentioned Seth a few times in this. We’ve taught together, written together, consulted together, biked together, and hiked together. Seth and I first got to know each other well when I was a graduate program director, formally his boss. He often says in our work together that I was a great boss. But, I don’t take the credit for this. Instead, I surrounded myself with great people like him and then made sure the door was opened for them to do great work. Their great work was reflected by the success of the alumni who completed that program.

As a part of our series about “How To Give Honest Feedback without Being Hurtful,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Timothy M. Franz, Ph.D.

Tim Franz is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist at St. John Fisher College, where he’s Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology. He also works as an organizational consultant through his consulting organization, Franz Consulting. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, his M.A. from the University of Buffalo, and his B.A. from SUNY Oneonta. His new book, co-written with Seth Silver, is Meaningful Partnership at Work: How the Workplace Covenant Ensures Mutual Accountability and Success between Leaders and Teams (Productivity Press, Aug. 27, 2021). Learn more at teambuildingprocess.com or silverconsultinginc.com.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you got started?

As my coauthor and friend Seth R. Silver, Ed.D., likes to jokingly point out, I’m a “professor who consults” (and he’s a consultant who professes!). The reason for this statement is exactly because of my backstory. After completing my master’s degree from the University of Buffalo, I worked in human resources consulting for five years at two different large management consulting firms. I went back to school for my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago and then changed to an academic career. But, this early part of my career certainly helped to influence the way I think today.

Now, as an Industrial and Organizational psychologist at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, the bulk of my work is as a college professor. I’m chair of the department and an established researcher. But, I never left my roots in consulting. My work as a professor is almost always relevant to the way people think, feel, and act at work. And, my consulting informs my work as a professor.

What do you think makes your work stand out? Can you share a story?

As an Industrial and Organizational psychologist, I’m a scientist-practitioner. This concept has two different and complementary sides to it. First, it means that I understand and use the science when I apply psychological principles to making positive change in the workplace. Second, it means that I consider the importance of application when conducting academic research. Kurt Lewin put it best, reportedly saying, “Let there be no research without action, and no action without research.”

One of the areas where my work stands out — whether through Franz Consulting or St. John Fisher College — is the mix of research and action, or even better, science and practice. My applied research is conducted through surveys and interviews using established applied methods. My academic work has immediate application to practice.

One perfect example of this is some work I did about 10 years ago with an international division of Johnson & Johnson. My colleague Paul Mastrangelo and I came up with a unique intervention for the client, which was designed to change culture. We then published the findings from the intervention in an applied academic journal (OD Practitioner, vol. 46, issue 2) using a peer-nominated team to drive change and improve trust. Then, I used the data from that project in an undergraduate class I was teaching, Advanced & Multivariate Statistics.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I often tell my students about the Sara story. When I was a fairly new college prof, I had a student, Sara, who was the “curve buster” in class. There was a team project in my class where the students conducted a (simple) organizational assessment and intervention. About three weeks before the end of the semester, her teammates reported that she wasn’t pulling her weight in her team. And, she stopped coming to class.

The day of the team presentation came, and she was a no-show. I wondered how she would face her team members at the final exam, and she was a no-show at that, too. Then, I returned to my office after the exam and had a voicemail from Sara. It was from 5:31 a.m., and she said on the message that she had to take her mother to emergency surgery for brain cancer two-and-a-half-hours away. My heart went out to Sara and her family! It was clear why she was struggling to complete her work. So, I called her home to leave a message letting her know that I’d help her to figure out the rest of her semester — and her mom answered the phone.

Clearly it was a miraculous recovery. They must have taken a helicopter to and from the hospital, and the emergency surgery must have taken seconds. When I said that I needed to talk with Sara about the final exam, her mom said in an exasperated tone, “Is she pulling that shit again?” And the lies didn’t even stop with me. It turns out that she told her family that she did the make up work. Even worse, she was transferring and told another university that she passed my class and the grade would get changed.

To me, honesty is a foundational component of what makes a real leader. For followers to trust us, as leaders, we need to first be trustworthy. I now use this as a story about the importance of honesty — even when a person doesn’t like what the outcome will be.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

This mistake was not when I first started, but when I first started at my current academic position over 20 years ago. In the department I worked in prior to this, many of the people whose offices were close to the department would use that department’s microwave to warm up their lunch. When I first came to SJFC, I let others in our office suite use our department microwave. I learned very quickly that I’d violated a strong norm in this new department! Thankfully, I was quickly forgiven because I was so new. But, it really hit home about the importance of the problems caused through unstated implicit expectations.

What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees thrive and avoid burnout?

I think some of the worst career advice I hear people give is “do what you love.” For many who follow this advice, it turns a passion into a daily grind. And, far more people will never have an opportunity to do this.

However, my advice is to find your passion, especially if it’s something outside of work. I’m an avid mountain biker and skier. And, I love to help people. About 10 years ago, I joined National Ski Patrol and this volunteer activity keeps me energized for work and play.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

Many people define leadership as the ability to influence others. But, I find that this definition falls short. Influence can be both positive and negative, allowing people who have performed negative, heinous acts to be, by definition, called leaders because they influenced many others to do horrible things.

Thus, my definition of leadership includes influence, but (like Kouzes and Posner) includes a prosocial component. Leadership is the ability to influence others to have empathy, create respect, and build trust.

In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

I mentioned previously that I like to mountain bike and ski. These are my go-to activities to relieve stress. Both of these create, for me, Csíkszentmihályi’s idea of flow. Very briefly, this is when your attention becomes intensely focused and you’re completely absorbed in the moment. Biking and skiing both provide me with flow, which allows me to ignore and let go of all of the many things that demand my attention. I’ve gotten some of my best ideas for writing after being on skis or the bike!

Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Can you briefly tell our readers about your experience with managing a team and giving feedback?

As Ken Blanchard put it: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” It’s an absolutely essential part of the developmental role required of team leaders, and perhaps even the most important part. But, giving feedback is still hard to do, and sometimes it’s hard to receive. The problem is that when team members and leaders don’t get feedback, they can’t learn and develop.

Our book Meaningful Partnership at Work discusses a process that we call the “Workplace Covenant.” In a Workplace Covenant, teams and leaders exchange obligations and expectations, making the often-implicit expectations explicit. This mutual exchange dramatically reduces the two-way street of frustration that team leaders and team members often have. This is, in part, because leaders have a tool that they can use to give behavioral feedback and also because team members now have a psychologically safe way in which they can give upward feedback to their lead.

Further, I pulled from my consulting experience and worked with another coauthor, Lauren A. Vicker, to create a video (on my YouTube channel) that helps college students learn about how to give peer feedback, a skill they are almost never taught.

This might seem intuitive, but it will be constructive to spell it out. Can you share with us a few reasons why giving honest and direct feedback is essential to being an effective leader?

I’m going to steal from my coauthor Seth R. Silver here. Seth has a great quote that says: “Problem behavior ignored or tolerated is problem behavior encouraged.” This to me illustrates exactly why giving honest and direct feedback is essential to being an effective leader. If you don’t give regular, ongoing feedback, you’re only implicitly encouraging the poor behavior.

Honestly, one of my pet peeves at work is when leaders don’t give the honest and direct feedback and, instead, wait for behavior to change on its own (which it won’t). When it doesn’t magically change, the person is fired. This problem is completely the fault of poor leadership and not the team member.

One of the trickiest parts of managing a team is giving honest feedback in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. Can you please share with us five suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote employee?

These ideas all come from my consulting work about how to deliver feedback and the video about peer feedback that I mentioned previously:

• First, prepare what you will say in advance
• Second, think through your opening. Make sure to ask permission to give feedback.
• Third, express that your intention is to help them improve.
• Fourth, consider your location. If the feedback is positive, it’s fine to do it in public. If it’s developmental, make sure that you do it in private.
• Finally, always end on a positive note.

Can you address how to give constructive feedback over email? If someone is in front of you, much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. How do you prevent the email from sounding too critical or harsh?

Positive feedback is always good to provide, and it doesn’t matter where. In fact, we don’t give praise and recognition nearly enough. But, I don’t actually think that any leader should ever give developmental or negative feedback over email. Instead, use email to set up a meeting. If it’s possible to do it face-to-face, that’s best. If not, use a video conference tool or, at a minimum, a phone call.

In your experience, is there a best time to give feedback or critique? Should it be immediately after an incident? Should it be at a different time? Should it be at set intervals? Can you explain what you mean?

If the reason you’re giving feedback is because there has been conflict, it’s essential to wait until your temperature cools down and you take time to prepare. But, positive and developmental feedback should always be given as close to an event as possible. With practice, this becomes easier and feedback becomes an ongoing part of the conversation.

How would you define what it is to “be a great boss?” Can you share a story?

First, the leader’s primary job is to develop their team. Too many so-called leaders hire people and then fail to develop them. Sometimes it’s because they don’t know what their role is as a leader. Other times it’s because they are insecure and worry that developing good people will make them look more inept.

Second, a leader should surround themselves with great people. I’ve mentioned Seth a few times in this. We’ve taught together, written together, consulted together, biked together, and hiked together. Seth and I first got to know each other well when I was a graduate program director, formally his boss. He often says in our work together that I was a great boss. But, I don’t take the credit for this. Instead, I surrounded myself with great people like him and then made sure the door was opened for them to do great work. Their great work was reflected by the success of the alumni who completed that program.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

A few years ago I was reflecting on my career. When doing so, I looked at the work that my Department of Psychology colleague, Ryan Thibodeau, was doing. He was studying and giving public talks about reducing the stigma around mental health. It was (and is) fabulous work that’s making positive change in the world.

A considerable portion of my work, though influential, wasn’t focused on positive change. This led me to push my coauthor Seth to write the book that is now complete. The concepts in the book will, without a doubt, make positive change for so many people at work. Our research shows it, and our years of experience confirm it. Thus, my hope is that the terms Meaningful Partnership and the Workplace Covenant become part of the lexicon at work.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson” quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite life quote comes again from my friend and coauthor Seth: “With no reflection, there is no learning. With no learning, there is no change. With no change, we stagnate and fail.”

I love this quote because it shows that we need to accept the changes that are going to come. And, we won’t be able to accomplish this without learning and reflection.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I’m very active on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-franz-consulting/

I have two Facebook author pages at: https://www.facebook.com/MakingTeamProjectsWork

and: https://www.facebook.com/MeaningfulPartnership

I also have a website with resources at: https://teambuildingprocess.com/

Finally, my YouTube channel is at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXZAN-ih04Jne23UqutxjBg

Thank you for these great insights! We really appreciate the time you spent with this.