How to Give Good Feedback

3. Feedback Is Where You Find It

It's a mistake to blame all the problems with performance reviews on the people who deliver them. Feedback is no different from any other business process - you get out of it only what you put into it. If you're not getting enough useful feedback, don't look at your boss; start by looking at yourself. "Ultimately," says Sibson & Co.'s Saunier, "managers aren't responsible for their people's performance. People are responsible for their own performance. There's feedback all around you - if you pay attention. If you're not getting enough feedback, ask for it."

Saunier offers an example from her own experience. She heard from a unit coach that a new employee, who'd been on the job three months and had been working with Saunier on a project, complained that he wasn't receiving enough feedback. "I couldn't believe it," Saunier says. "We walked back together from the client's office every day. And every day we discussed what we could do better. Just because I didn't sit him down in my office doesn't mean I wasn't providing feedback. The next time we walked back from the client's, I began our discussion by saying, 'Now, here's some feedback.'"

LeRoy Pingho, a vice president at Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant, never complains that he's not getting enough feedback. Since the mid-1980s, he's organized annual 360-degree reviews. This is not an official company program; it's his personal program. He selects a cross-section of colleagues - a boss, a subordinate, a customer - and asks them each to assess his performance. "Some things are 'flat spots' for me," he says. "I can struggle with them alone or get help."

Last year, Pingho took his review process a step further. He wrote an assessment based on the feedback he received, and then distributed copies to 50 people: bosses, peers, direct reports, his wife. He sent everyone the same message: "You work with me, so you should know my strengths and weaknesses. Also, I'm going to ask four of you to help me work on the things I'm not good at."

Pingho dubbed those four people his "spotters." He chose two at his level, one above him, and one below him. He met with each of the spotters to review the "flat spots" he'd identified. Then he told them that he wanted to focus on getting better at two of those weaknesses. (He didn't think he could tackle five at once.) One was active listening: "When I'm in meetings, I'm already through the presentation before the presenter has gotten to the first page." The second was empowerment: "I want to use the input I get from people instead of disregarding it."

He asked his spotters to alert him when they saw behavior that related to those improvement goals: "I said, 'You don't have to do this in a formal way. But if you see something, tell me.' It's like being on the high bar. Just knowing that there's somebody to make sure you don't fall helps you become more self-confident."

At GM Powertrain Group, a new approach to feedback is helping salaried employees gain more self-confidence. The group, which designs and manufactures castings, engines, and transmissions, began redesigning its appraisal processes in July 1996. The new system, called Individual Growth Strategy, revolves around a few simple principles: People want to do their best. The people who improve are those who have the most control over their development. So it's up to employees - not managers - to decide what kind of feedback is most useful and from whom it should come.

GM offers training in ideas, techniques, and tools for soliciting feedback. But it's up to the people who want feedback to seek it out. "If I buy something, I'm more committed to using it than if someone gives it to me," explains Chris Oster. "The same goes for feedback. If I solicit feedback, I'm more inclined to use it."

4. Giving people a Raise isn't the Same as Giving them Feedback

It's hard to argue with the principle that the better you do, the more money you should get. But most performance gurus say that explicitly linking reviews and raises has unintended consequences.

"A raise is a transaction about how much money you or I can get," explains Kelly Allan. "Feedback is a conversation about how much meaning you and I can create. Feedback is about success for your people and your customers. Pay is about marketplace economics and skills. Pay and feedback are not related."

Allan practices what he preaches. At his company, discussions about money are tangible and statistical. People play a big role in setting their own pay. Associates research market rates for talent in their peer group, based on skills and experience. People who want a raise can present evidence that they've acquired a new skill or had an experience that the market would reward with a salary increase.