LEARNING
fertile environment for learning. By contrast, positive
feedback activates the parasympathetic nervous
system, the ‘rest and digest’ system associated with a
sense of wellbeing and cognitive openness. In the words
of Buckingham and Goodall: “If you want your people
to learn more, pay attention to what’s working for them
right now, and build on that.”
Taking a positive approach to giving feedback does
not mean reverting to Scott’s ruinous empathy, never
delivering those course corrections or reducing all
feedback to meaningless praise. The trick is to look for
the learning opportunities in all situations and to
understand that delivering feedback in a positive,
future-focused way is much more likely to be received
and acted upon by the recipient.
Tools such as Pendleton’s Rules or the SBI (situation-
behaviour-impact) model, which aim to depersonalise
and take the emotional ‘sting’ out of feedback
(see boxes) can offer a useful guide. It's also important
to resist the temptation to step in and try to ‘fix’ people
when things go wrong; mistake fixing might sometimes
be necessary to prevent failure, but it does not, in itself,
help people to develop.
Giving contextualised feedback does not, however,
imply that if you have nothing nice to say, you shouldn’t
say anything at all. In a Harvard Business Review article,
Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman shared the results of
their research into people’s attitudes towards feedback,
both positive and what they call ‘corrective’. They found
that, by a three-to-one margin, respondents believed
that corrective feedback did more to improve their
performance than positive feedback — provided,
crucially, that it was given in a constructive manner.
They also measured how difficult managers found
it to deliver corrective feedback. Managers who
found it stressful to give negative feedback were also
significantly less willing to receive it themselves.
Conversely, those who rated their managers as effective
at providing them with honest, straightforward feedback
tended to score higher on their own preference for
receiving corrective feedback. The authors conclude
that “the ability to give corrective feedback constructively
is one of the critical keys to leadership”.
Feedback can
be an inherently
messy business
— because it
involves people
L
Providing clear, specific feedback:
The Situation – Behaviour –
Impact™ Feedback Tool
Developed by The Center for Creative Leadership,
the SBI™ feedback tool outlines a simple structure
that you can use to give forward-facing,
de-personalised and contextualised feedback.
B
S
I
SBI FEEDBACK PHASES:
Situation:
Define the
where and
when of the
situation. This
puts the
feedback into
context and
gives a
specific
setting as a
reference.
Behaviour:
Specific,
observable
behaviours
that you
want to
acknowledge
or address.
Do not make
assumptions
and stay
objective.
Impact:
How the
person’s
action/s
or lack of
action/s have
affected you
or others.
In a fourth phases — Outcomes — discuss
what your team member needs to do to
change/build on this behaviour in the future.
Alternative
Behaviour:
Discuss an
alternative
behaviour that
would have been
better.
Alternative
Impact:
Discuss how the
new behaviour
would have a
more positive
impact.
February – May 2020 // 87