MANAGING UP
How to Deliver Harsh Feedback to a Superior
The difficult but necessary part of maintaining great relationships
Early April this year, leadership consultancy firm Zenger Folkman did a study on feedback practices. They discovered that, in fact, a great majority of leaders were “twice as likely” to give positive feedback (at times, sugarcoated feedback that can seem positive), instead of corrective or negative ones. Which made sense: in another one of their studies, they found that employees actually want negative feedback despite it being undesirable. Negative feedback can highlight blind spots and show employees the way to improve.
The problem comes for the inverse.
Leaders are struggling to give feedback to their employees—when it is the opposite situation, the struggle is even bigger.
And that is understandable: for one, not many think of giving feedback to our managers and leaders. These people are our ‘superiors’ and for the most part, our jobs partly depend on their appraisals. Two, it is difficult to approach the topic. For instance, if your leader implemented something that actually caused more trouble than good, it can be hard for many to tell him that straight in the face. Three, most of us avoid confrontation. Why create an opportunity…
