Posts Tagged ‘Harvard Business Publishing’ Blog Index

How much do you value feedback? Would you leave a job because you don’t get enough of it? David Simms, in Emerging Nonprofit Leaders: “More Feedback, Please”, uncovered some interesting insights into how important a culture that encourages feedback really is. David attended the Independent Sector’s annual conference, where he engaged 200 next generation nonprofit leaders in a group conversation. He discovered that most of the group planned to stay in their current organization for at least the next three years, but almost all said they would be gone in 10 years.

Why?

Because of an organizational culture that does not recognize the value of feedback:

What these young leaders recognized is that without candid feedback, both praise and developmental in nature, we deprive our teams, our organizations, and ourselves of the information needed to get better.

The fact that these young leader are willing to leave an organization because of a lack of a feedback culture has some interesting implications. It demonstrates just how crucial a culture that encourages learning and development is for keeping and acquiring the most driven people. As more of the next generation start to fill management roles, it will be interesting to see how corporate culture shifts towards one of feedback and development. Would you leave a job if you didn’t feel like you were getting enough feedback?

Tags: David Simms, Development, execution, Feedback, Harvard Business Publishing, next generation, performance, Rypple

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39360 commentshttp://rypple.com/blog/feedback-culture/Feedback+Culture2009-12-16+14%3A55%3A02Nathaniel+Rottenberg

Although your high performers may need feedback less often then others, it’s still crucial that they receive regular, continuous feedback. Amy Gallo, in Giving a High Performer Productive Feedback, notes that it’s essential to give high performers feedback even though it may seem counter-intuitive. Here are some helpful tips from Giving a High Performer Productive Feedback:

Always describe behaviors, not traits. Don’t dwell on the past; instead focus on what the employee can change in the future

Be sure to provide feedback that offers solutions to obstacles your high performers may be facing. If you simply outline flaws, then they might see your feedback as ‘nitpicky’. You don’t want to annoy, or worse upset, you want to help. This is very similar to Marshall Goldsmith’s feedforward, which we’ve previously taken a look at.

To make the most of your feedback session, focus the discussion on three levels: the star’s current performance, her next performance frontier, and her future goals and aspirations

One of the character traits that defines a high performer is their eagerness to constantly ‘do better’. Help them develop a plan that will be challenging and keep them engaged.

I highly recommend that you read Giving a High Performer Feedback. The article contains many more helpful tips, as well as some interesting case studies.

Tags: Amy Gallo, behavior, execution, Feedback, feedback seesion, feedforward, Harvard Business Publishing, high performer, Management Essentials, marshall goldsmith, performance, Rypple

Community Marketing

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The Harvard Business Publishing agrees with our belief in power of one thing.

In the post To Change Effectively, Change Just One Thing, Peter Bregman describes how he  lost 18 pounds in one and a half months. He did it by focusing on cutting down one area of consumption.

…I asked myself: what’s the one thing I can change that will make the biggest difference in my calorie consumption? Everyone has one thing.

We often draw parallels between going to the gym and getting feedback. Everyone knows that these two activities are good for you, but not everyone does it.

Certainly some diets are healthier than others. But in terms of losing weight? No diet was better than any other. Because all diets work through a single mechanism — they restrict your calorie intake. People lose weight when they eat less. If that’s true, then the best diet is the simplest one

It doesn’t matter what one area or skill you choose to focus on, as long as you’re dedicating all of your focus to it.

Typically, people overwhelm themselves with tasks in their eagerness to make a change successfully. But that’s a mistake. Instead, they should take the time up front to figure out the one and only thing that will have the highest impact and then focus 100% of their effort on that one thing.

Don’t try and do to much at once or you will fail. That’s why Rypple only lets you ask one question at a time. Getting feedback on one question makes improvement much more realistic because you’re focusing on one area at a time.

If you’re going to work on a weakness, never choose more than one.

Great point, and something that we truly believe.

Tags: change, Feedback, habits, Harvard Business Publishing, learning, lessons, one, Peter Bregman

Community Marketing

27460 commentshttp://rypple.com/blog/the-power-of-one-thing/The+Power+of+One+Thing2009-10-07+20%3A58%3A18Nathaniel+Rottenberg