Empowering
Managers
Managing people is really hard. I mean, tell that to any parent“ managing” a teenager through their GCSE revision at the moment and they will probably roll their eyes and say,“ no sh * t Sherlock!!” And yet, it’ s usually the stepping stone to career progression, improved rewards and benefits and brings with it status and purpose. So why is it that so many of us are promoted into management positions because of our technical capability only to be given a role where human relationships are the key and the ability to have courageous conversations with others lies at the heart of the role- that’ s a completely different skill set!
So often clients of mine have rarely received training on how to have necessary conversations, real conversations, difficult conversations. For me, the bedrock of being able to have difficult conversations and build good people management skills, is feedback. And by that, I mean two-way feedback. It used to be the case that feedback frameworks were based on the traditional sh * t sandwich: say something good, tell them what you really want to say, finish with something good. It was a power equation: I’ m the manager, I have the power to give feedback, I’ ll decide when I do that and I’ m going to tell you where you’ re going wrong. Trouble is, the sh * t sandwich method doesn’ t really work and it gives managers the false impression that feedback can be quick and easy, that it’ s a one-way street – and that’ s seldom the case.
So how do you show managers ways to give and receive feedback? Well, I could get all cute and tell you to come along to one of my workshops to find out more but that’ s not the purpose of this article. My aim is to share hints and tips and, in that spirit, here are my quick hacks for good quality feedback skills:
How to give / receive feedback I don’ t want to overload you with acronyms but I do find them useful to remember the key tips. Here’ s what I regularly use: WWW: What Works Well, this is great for giving positive feedback but can also be used when asking for feedback yourself, e. g.“ tell me what works well for you at the moment?”
EBI: Even Better If, I like this phrase as a way of giving constructive feedback, e. g.“ what would be even better, is if you XXX” this wording comes from a position of support and is phrased to enable the other person to thrive.
BIQ: Behaviour, Impact, Question( s), this is the main model I share in my feedback workshops. It’ s important to be specific with the behaviour / performance you observed, to clearly explain the impact / consequence of what you observed and MOST important of all, ask some big open questions to check understanding and start a discussion, e. g. How do you see it? What do you think needs to happen? Why do you think it happened? Who do you need support from? When shall we review this?
Building your feedback skills takes time and determination and you need to be open to receiving feedback yourself along the way. Years ago, I picked up the phrase: Feedback is a gift … I do not want to receive! But the reality is we need to get to a place where we are curious and actively asking for feedback to enable ourselves and others to thrive.
Ruth George- HR Consultant- ruth @ ruthgeorge. com | 07899 920075 © Ruth George HR Consulting. This is not legal advice and is provided for general information only.
18 < Boxmoor Direct < May 2025 <