Leadership and Feedback

This blog is authored by Ekta Bhardwaj
Giving feedback is an integral aspect of the leadership role and majority of the leaders fail miserably in it as I have experienced over the years in my career; thus, derailing people from their growth path and not helping them achieve their full potential.
Often leaders are seen struggling to help their team members develop and grow. Providing genuine feedback plays a very powerful role here. I have observed leaders being in an uncomfortable spot when it comes to giving a tough feedback. So, either they try and avoid confronting this situation of giving tough feedback or give the feedback in such an indirect manner that it is completely ineffective. In both the situations, the leader doesn’t help the individual grow. The lack of effective feedback creates a blind spot for an individual which keeps on growing with time and the individual is left far behind in his/her growth trajectory. I have seen many such cases where the individuals were derailed in their career due to such blind spots. But when given a direct yet constructive feedback, quickly course corrected and performed better than expected.
On the other hand, some leaders are apathetic and go overboard in being direct and end up devastating the individual with their feedback. Even in this case the leader doesn’t help the individual grow. I know many such cases as well wherein such a feedback further lowered the performance of individuals rather than help them do better.
Help people grow and develop is the primary responsibility of a Leader and knowing the art of giving feedback is paramount here; striking the right balance between being direct and open v/s adopting a developmental and constructive approach.
If you are entering a feedback session soon, here are some quick check points for you:

1. Is the Individual willing and open to receiving the feedback?
2. Is the feedback being given timely so as it remains relevant? Individual will not relate to something that happened many months back which is hard to recall.
3. Is the meeting time rightly divided between discussing strong as well as development areas as per the individual need? For example, if the individual has more developmental needs than strengths then more time needs to be spent talking directly about development areas.
4. Have you made sure that what you communicated is precisely what the individual has understood?
5. Is the individual given an opportunity to think and recommend herself about the corrective actions that she needs to take?
6. Does the individual look energized and motivated at the end of feedback session?