Navigating Feedback: As Much an Art as It Is a Science

And every day is an opportunity for improvement

It’s an unfortunate reality that hundreds of years into the history of corporations, very few are excelling at providing and managing employee feedback.

The reasons are plenty: businesses and people want to avoid uncomfortable situations, managers themselves aren’t trained to adequately give feedback, or work gets in the way of spending the appropriate time and attention it takes to prioritize it. In short, it’s a hard road.

I think about feedback a lot — how it’s helped me in my career, how I can teach my employees to do it better, and how I can do a better job of it myself. As such, I wanted to share some key insights I’ve learned, including where I’ve fallen short.

Feedback should be actionable

As a 24-year-old young pup salesman, I flew to DC to pitch a new product with a list price of $50,000. As I flew home triumphant in my sale at $35,000, I suddenly grew nervous. Was I authorized to give that big of a discount? I wasn’t sure. When I told my boss what happened, he said something that sticks with me to this very day: “You always have the authority to make the right decision.”

That advice is fantastic in a vacuum — but why was it the right decision? If I could give that former boss advice, I would recommend we debrief the entire process to see if $35,000 was indeed the highest I could get and what other mistakes or opportunities I could learn from that experience.

My boss gave me confidence that I should take risks — that remains true: if you don’t take risks, you’ll never rise above the pack. But those who take the risk should understand the downsides and recognize the warning signs that the risk won’t work.

While I don’t necessarily believe people need to make mistakes to learn, they will not grow if they’re not trusted with decisions. Looking back, I learned so much from that sales trip, which only happened because I was allowed to learn (and potentially fail).

So how do you help people grow while protecting the business? You need to convey what decisions they can make and what potential downsides are, so everyone is aligned. Having that sort of discussion up front lets you know whether the worst-case scenario is a downside you can handle.

Feedback is a circular process

Providing feedback is a never-ending process. And it’s not omnidirectional.

I have a saying: “My ego is big enough that it doesn’t bother me when I’m wrong.” When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, you don’t have to look far to find an example.

Some time ago, an individual who worked for me sent me a note that they must have worked up some courage to send. They said, “Pete, you’re cutting me off at the knees.”

To know how to best manage your employees, you must first know yourself. For example, I loathe a loaded inbox. When an email comes in, I answer it ASAP, sometimes with one-word answers or, if I’m absolutely slammed, it could be a simple question mark.

After further inquiry, I realized this employee was upset that I was responding to emails sent to both of us immediately before she had a chance to respond. Many of these were intended for her, and I was just along for the ride. My immediate responses made her feel like she wasn’t able to answer and assert authority.

A brief conversation cleared that all up. I directed that quick email response to her, often with a simple: “It’s your call.” She’s empowered, and I keep my inbox clean.

Also, I’ve had miscommunications in the past that I initially blamed on the recipient. Upon reflection, I probably wasn’t being clear enough. Understanding that you’re fallible is not for the weak, but it’s crucial for strengthening relationships with your employees.

Feedback needs to occur during structured and unstructured events

At Northern Trust, we have semi-formal, mid-year, and official reviews once a year. But we also stress the importance of ongoing feedback.

No employee should walk into a performance review and not know where they stand. The biggest mistake a manager can make is waiting for an employee to ask for feedback. A huge part of a manager’s job is to help people move forward. You can only do that if you’re proactively giving them the map.

Knowing what’s on their mind also helps managers better understand what motivates their employees. Rather than lose a worker who is unhappy to another company, they may need to find a job internally that best suits their skills and passions.

Feedback is a mix of hard and soft skill appraisals

It’s a mistake to think feedback is just related to the specifics of a job — e.g., analyzing data, writing strategy plans, or pitching. There are a ton of soft skills that also require feedback.

For example, I did a personality evaluation that affirmed that my confidence, which I am confident I have in spades, can also be a weakness if I don’t modulate it. By that, I mean it can come across as ego and an unwillingness to hear disagreements. As such, I sometimes need to say to newer employees that they are free to disagree, and we can have a good conversation about the best path forward. My confidence is not a blocker for criticism or dialogue, and I would be missing out on many ideas that are better than my own if I allowed it to be.

Employees are humans, too

Understand what motivates people. You need to give authority to an individual, not a group. Because in the latter, it’s easy for groupthink to sink or for people to not take enough responsibility because they are just part of a group. It also gives you a direct person to whom you provide feedback.

Also, the simplest, but underutilized feedback superpower is to give both positive and negative feedback; no one wants to be demotivated by only hearing what they’ve done wrong.

Food for Thought on Feedback

Managing feedback is a never-ending journey. The people who give and receive feedback are all human, and we all make mistakes. Giving feedback is extremely hard to do well. But companies that give it up are losing much more.

Leaders need to set the tone by demonstrating the importance of prioritizing the official reviews and stressing the need for informal check-ins. Managers need to understand they have a responsibility for the careers of people who work for them and providing feedback is a cornerstone of their jobs.

Finally, embrace empathy in the feedback loop. It’s not just the what of the feedback, it’s the how.