I took “Foundations For Teams” class taught by Professor Kristin Behfar at the Paul Merage School of Business and while reviewing what I’ve learned so far, I want to share it with you here on the blog. By the way, I absolutely loved the class and think that Professor Behfar is such an amazing expert on organizational team management.
I recommend you go read more about her and what she does here: The Secrets of High Performing Teams
Most of the concepts and information I’m going to talk about are from Professor Behfar’s material distributed in class, so she needs to get the credit. I’m just elaborating on what she has taught me.
Alright, let’s start reviewing…
A Key Concept to working through team problems and giving & receiving feedback is that “we have little control over others, but we can control what they react to.”
Effective feedback minimizes defensive responses because it covers multiple dimensions and leaves less space for possible defensiveness…
6 Elements Of An Effective Feedback
There are 6 elements to an effective feedback that Dr. Behfar talked about.
1. Consider the readiness of the recipients (mare sure your audience is in the feedback receiving mode and your feedback does not come out as a surprise)
2. Be descriptive, instead of being evaluative (Nobody naturally loves being evaluated. Instead describe your feedback as much as you can and make it flow like a story.)
3. Avoid being general and be as specific as possible (Use words that specify, such as the word “because.” The more you specify, the more they are likely to listen closely and take the feedback to their heart. If you give general feedback, they will cancel it out like any other “noise” that is generally present in our everyday life.)
4. Give actionable feedback (This insures that they have something solid to implement after getting the feedback. A confusing feedback would be to tell them something they can’t do anything about.)
5. Mare sure you test somehow for clear understanding (Make sure they understand exactly what you mean to avoid possible misunderstandings that can lead to consuming more time that could be used in other important and productive activities.)
6. Make sure you test somehow that your observations are valid (Simply, make sure what you think you’ve observed is consistent with what really happened. You can waste a lot of time giving feedback on something that didn’t really happen the way you saw it.)
4 Secrets To Receiving Feedback Effectively
1. Listen closely (This sounds obvious, but so many people “drop the ball” on this one because it seem so obvious. Remember, it is not enough to listen to someone, you need to really hear them. Only then, you will be able to know where the message is really coming from.)
2. Overcome the urge to be defensive (It is so easy to get defensive when receiving feedback. Don’t choose the easy way out and you’ll be glad you did.)
3. Clarify what you don’t understand (The best way to clarify is to ask clarifying questions that come at the end of restating the feedback in your own words. You want to be on the same page with the person who’s giving you feedback.)
4. Monitor your initial reaction (Pausing and thinking can be very powerful in this situation. Notice how you naturally react to the feedback, but don’t express it “half cooked.” Ask for time if you need to in order to digest the feedback and see if your initial reaction is the one you want to express.)
The Importance of Individual and Team Level Feedback
Both the individual and the team level feedback are crucial in correcting the present team performance/satisfaction and/or sustaining high team performance/satisfaction.
Each type of feedback gives a different type of information that helps the team to plan around better. When combined, the individual and team level feedback provides the team with the most actionable feedback.
There are several reasons for this:
1. Individual Level Feedback increases awareness in the individual about
- their own performance
- their impact on the team
(Individual level feedback helps the team as a whole better understand the needs and motivations of each individual)
2. Team Level Feedback increases awareness of the need to change and/or fine-tune how team members interact with each other. This includes learning by observation.
Example: Team level feedback answers the question: “Is the way we structure and organize effective?”
3. Benefits of Using Both: Receiving both types of information helps teams and individuals better understand how to assign roles (“match the work with the quirk”), organize work efforts, and spend team resources.
4. Pitfalls of Only Using One Type of Feedback:
If the team only receives individual level feedback, the danger is that the shortcomings of team members will be highlighted without a team level solution.
If the team only receives team level feedback, the danger is that the team will recognize the problem, but not understand how to better utilize individuals in correcting the problem.
