Let’s Talk ATTITUDE - Part 1 of 3 in Feedback

Personal Development: The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback

Part 1 of 3 – Let’s Talk ATTITUDE - Your Potential Black Hole

In the context of performance feedback have you ever heard someone say: “You’re attitude is so bad.”?

Whether you've said it or you heard someone say it, what would you expect the receiver’s  response to be? Won’t they become defensive, perhaps challenging YOUR attitude, belligerently asking “What do you mean, MY attitude is bad?!?!?”

Well, this conversation is off to a very bad start – and actually this is a black hole that you’re going to have trouble getting out of - and lots of leaders/managers find themselves in it.

We all recognize attitude as a great thing about someone or a factor that makes us keep our distance from someone – there’s no doubt that attitudes exist, are visible and speak volumes about someone.

But “Attitude” as a behavior descriptor is a trap so many leaders/managers fall into – we intend to provide helpful constructive feedback, but actually just make the situation worse by not using specific examples to illustrate what we mean when we say “bad attitude”.

Stop and remember your purpose in providing feedback to a team member - isn’t it to:

Encourage and recognize the team member’s effort

Reinforce something good about his/her performance

Set the stage for behavior change – (you see a “bad attitude” and intend to address it)

Set the stage for improving performance

Ken Blanchard is credited with saying:
Feedback…the breakfast of champions.

And that’s what you intend to do – give this team member his/her Wheaties so they can be a champ, so let’s look at the best ways to get on track.

Keep in mind…

Effective feedback has a positive effect on a team member's performance. 

Feedback is defined as the process of providing someone accurate information about the impact of their behavior on themselves, you, others and/or the completion of a task.

Research shows that most team members say they don’t get enough feedback on a day-to-day basis. 

Feedback should be ongoing: effective leaders and managers don’t just provide feedback during formal annual appraisals. 

Feedback should be given on a daily basis, to let team members know how they are doing and that you value their work. 

Whether feedback is "positive or negative", given informally or formally, it's information that provides the opportunity to:

Encourage and recognize your team member’s effort

Reinforce something good about your team member’s performance

Set the stage for a behavior change

Set the stage for improving some aspect of performance

Strong Relationships + Solid Leadership = Success for Everyone

To finish the ATTITUDE discussion - here's my all-time favorite take on the subject

Tomorrow: Giving Feedback considers three important factors